Tainted
by GatorSam
Summary: First installment of my new Wild Card series. Even the evil can hope. Hope, then, is a wild card. When used for good, hope can extinguish all darkness; when used for bad, it can dampen all light. Hope in itself is neither good nor evil. Hope can be tainted.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Hey everyone! So this is a new series that I'm going to be starting up and for right now I'm going to be calling it the Wild Card Series. There are going to be three stories making up this series and it's going to cover Adventure 01, 02, and after 02. This is the first installment called Tainted Hope. I won't go into too much explanation because I wanna let you guys figure out what's going on by yourself. Yes, I am going to finish Hope's Sacrifice, but since no one has reviewed that in a while I figured I'd take a break from it and try starting up something new. If you hate this chapter, love this chapter, can't wait to find out what's going to happen, find any grammar errors, or just wanna say hi then leave a review! You don't even have to sign in to review so you have no excuse not to leave a little blurb or something in a review. Anyways, I really hope you enjoy this chapter and are eager to read into the Wild Card Series!

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Chapter 1:

(Unknown's Point of View)

He sighed heavily as he woke up. At times he wished he and his brother never would have discovered the Digital World; at least then he would be able to sleep in a real bed. Once they had found the Digital World and travelled there they had been stuck without any chance of escaping. It now had become their fate, which it must have been their fate all along since no one can change their destiny. Nevertheless, today was the day and there was a lot to do.

He sat up out of bed feeling like an old man. Well, in the form he was in right now he really was an old man. The white strip of hair in the middle of his balding head flung down onto his face. The tip of the strip rubbed his nose causing him to let out a mighty sneeze. Doing this caused the six others surrounding him to stir. As he pushed himself off the ground, with surprising strength for someone his age- he wasn't really as old as he looked, the data just seemed to like changing his appearance every so often- one of the six said, "Is it time, my lord?"

It was probably Benjamin. He was always eager to get up and get at 'em.

He nodded, though he wasn't sure Benjamin could see him, so he stated, "Everyone get up. It's time to go."

If they weren't awake by now, they were awake when he made that statement. The six others got to their feet and stood up awaiting orders.

Right now they were on File Island on top of Infinity Mountain. The morning was dark and quiet and everything was still. Black gears from underneath the surface of the mountain could be heard as they rotated endlessly. He smiled; the dark gears had been his first creation that wasn't a digimon. Yes, he created digimon. It was he and his brother that had restored the Digital World re-creating all the digimon and hatching them at Primary Village after all.

His lip curled into a snarl. That had been so long ago. How long, he wasn't certain, but it had to have been many hundreds of years ago. That was when he was blind, thinking that he and his brother could rule the Digital World in peace and harmony. They should have known better. Digimon, despite being just data, were smart, clever, and alive. And, just like humans- which he and his brother had once been though by now they must be pure data- digimon are both good and evil. They had created three types of digimon: vaccine, data, and virus. Although all types could have good and evil, vaccine digimon were typically good, virus were typically evil, and data digimon were a sort of bridge between the two. It only took so long before the virus and other evil type digimon decided they didn't want two humans ruling their world, even if these humans were the reason they were alive. The fools had no respect for their creators. He wanted to punish those digimon and throw them into the Dark Area they had created. His brother, however, respected the digimon's wishes. Instead of destroying the evil digimon, he decided to let them live and try to take over the Digital World. That was when he and his brother made many copies of themselves to help keep the evil in balance and keep peace in the Digital World. They had called themselves The Resistance. How pathetic. He now saw what needed to be done. That was why he revolted against his brother along with six other members of The Resistance. No longer would he put up for maintaining peace in the Digital World. When he finally gained the throne, there would be no peace at all; fear would take peace's place. Wasn't fear how all the effective rulers ruled anyway? Stir fear into the people and they will never turn against you. As long as you have the power to back the fear up, you could destroy any revolution that takes place and remain in charge for forever. That was the dream. And that was what led him to where he and the six others were right now.

By now the six of them were standing up and looking over the side of the mountain. He had to admit the place was beautiful. He and his brother sure did a damn good job of rebirthing the Digital World from the chaos it once was. The sun was about to rise over the sea that led to the continent of Server, but right where the sun was going to appear a dark shadow took its place. 'Good,' he thought to himself, 'he is right on time.

The shadow was a ways away, but it was moving swiftly and the distance between them was quickly closing in. He turned his vision from the sea to the rest of the island below.

Right now he was in the center of the island on top Infinity Mountain. To the north was Freezeland, which led on one side to the Misty Trees and on the other to Great Canyon. Next to Great Canyon was the ruins of the Overdell Mansion, which had once housed Myotismon and his servants but he and his brother had destroyed the place many years ago. Great Canyon also led to the Tropical Jungle and eventually Unwavering Forest, but to get from the Jungle to the Forest you had to cross a bridge where a river flowed down to Dragon Eye Lake. Unwavering Forest led to and Drill Tunnel. From there Gear Savannah came into view. Factorial Town was next along with Gecko Swamp and Toy Town. And that pretty much circled the entire island. The island may be small compared to the rest of the Digital World, but it was really a vast place. It was his favorite of the entire Digital World, and when he finally defeated his brother it would be here where he placed his castle.

After examining the island he turned back to see how far the shadow had progressed only to see that the shadow was only a hundred or so feet away and closing in quickly. The shadow was actually a rather tall, dark digimon. Devimon was his name, and he was one of the strongest champion digimon in the entire Digital World. Darkness was this virus type's specialty, and if there was ever any light around you could trust on him to extinguish it. He was one of the higher-ranking members of the evil digimon that had turned against him and his brother. There were others as well, such as the Dark Masters and Etemon, and ever since he had turned on his brother he had joined these digimon's leagues and gained their trust. Well, he was sure they didn't trust him, but if they knew what was best for them they would act like they trusted him and worked with him as they tried to overthrow his brother and the other members of the Resistance.

Devimon was now slowing his flight and descending onto the rocky ground that was the peak of Infinity Mountain. The evil digimon showed no expression as he landed and stood up at least ten feet tall and looked down at him with his dark, blood colored eyes.

"Is it time?" Devimon asked with his low, asserting voice.

He nodded. "You know you're job. Rule this island. Unleash the power of the dark gears I have created as well as the powers of darkness you possess to destroy the digidestineds. They arrive here today and they need to be destroyed. Do you understand?"

"Yes," the digimon replied almost annoyingly.

"Good, and do remember, Devimon, that the smallest of the digidestineds is the only one who has the power to defeat you, so don't take the digidestined lightly. Even then I don't think you have the power to defeat the young one, but I predict he will lose his partner and it is then that hope will be tainted and eventually become no more."

"I will not lose to some pathetic child," Devimon shot back angrily.

He laughed. "Sure you won't." The others chuckled as well. "Now, we have some unfinished business to take care of. Once we hide these tags in the bottom of the ocean we will come back to watch over you're work and spectate the final battle against them. Don't fail us Devimon."

Devimon looked like he wanted to jump him and send his demon claw right through his stomach, but the digimon didn't move a muscle. He smirked. The digimon hated working alongside him and the others, but he had shown them his hidden power, a power not even his brother knew of, and they realized what power he had over them. He was superior to them. He possessed more power than any digimon in the Digital World. He was going to be successful in taking over his creations.

"Let's go," he ordered, and he and the six others all entered the holes on top of the Mekanorimon behind them and flew off towards the ocean to hide the tags. Yes, today was the day the digidestineds, the one weapon his brother had to battle the seven of them and the evil digimon, entered the Digital World, and he was beyond ready. His brother didn't stand a chance, and he would soon be sitting on top his throne as supreme ruler of the Digital World.

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(Takeru's Point of View)

A blonde child stands on the sidewalk facing and looking up at what must unmistakably be his parents. What must be the boy's older brother is standing next to him. The mother is holding back tears as she smiles at her two children. The dad is smiling, his mouth moving, but he wasn't able to make out the words. Then the little boy, who is no more than eight and wearing a green ball cap on his head backwards, hugs the mother, squeezing her tightly. The older brother moves to pick up two duffel bags. As the young boy and his mother end their embrace, the father puts one hand on the little squirt's hat and another on the older brother's shoulder. He utters a few more words before removing his hands. The two boys turn to the bus and board. He watches the pair take a seat a couple of rows in front of where he was sitting. The parents look at the window as the little boy pounds on the window waving frantically. The doors shut and the bus starts progressing forward slowly. Blowing one last kiss and waving one last goodbye, the couple outside turn to walk home, the father holding his wife close with an arm around her shoulder.

He wished he was that little boy.

His name's Takeru, otherwise known as TK. He is eight years old and in the second grade. He had a mom, dad, and brother just like the family he had just observed, but his family wasn't close like they were. His mom and dad didn't even live in the same house, and he only got to see his brother Yamato, or Matt for short, when he went to live with his dad. You see, when he was only two years old his parents had divorced. He couldn't remember much of what had happened causing them to end their marriage, but he did remember one night perfectly.

_ "__But I really did see monsters mommy," he told his mother while picking his nose. He was, of course, referring to the epic fight that had just happened between some huge green parrot and an even bigger orange dinosaur. He and Matt watched the entirety of the battle from Matt's bedroom window. They had alternated between who would use the binoculars and both had gotten a close-up view of the match. When it had all ended, with the dinosaur winning and both the parrot and the dinosaur being sucked up into the sky, he had decided to go tell his momma what he and Matt had just seen. Matt had told him not to do it, but he ignored his older brother._

_Mom was washing dishes and looked rather annoyed at the moment. He almost could feel anger and frustration radiating from his mother's body. Had she and his father yelled at each other again?_

_ "__TK, there is no such thing as monsters!" his mother snapped back at him, "You were just imagining it, or maybe it was just a dream."_

_But it wasn't a dream. He had really seen the monsters; he wasn't making it up. Matt saw them too!_

_ "__But mommy…!" he tried, but he was cut off._

_ "__Now TK, that is enough. I don't want to hear any more of these crazy stories._

_Being rejected, he put his head down and started walking back to his room, almost on the verge of turning on the sprinklers in his eyes. _

_While he walked away he heard footsteps approach his mother._

_ "__Nancy! Why are you yelling at TK?" his father asked, his anger not hidden from his voice._

_He turned around to see his parents standing face to face. 'Not again,' he thought._

_ "__Because he's rambling on about some nonsense. Do you have a problem with that Hiroaki?"_

_ "__I just think you need to be a little kinder towards our children!"_

_ "__Oh that's a glorious statement seeing as you are always 'at work' and are never home to spend anytime with me or the kids!"_

_ "__I work because I don't want to come home to a devil like you!"_

_Silence. He was almost rounding the corner and walking into the hallway that led towards his bedroom when he heard his mother say quietly but not timidly in the slightest, "Get out."_

_ "__What did you just say?"_

_This time his mother didn't refrain from upping the volume. The sudden outburst caused him to freeze in panic. _

_"__I said get out! I never want to see you again… ever again!"_

_There were footsteps as his father walked towards the door, put his shoes and jacket on, and left their apartment, slamming the door as he did so. This time he couldn't keep back the tears and they flowed out of his eyes like a running faucet. He didn't realize it but he also was whimpering. _

_He decided he wanted to be alone so he turned the corner and started walking towards his room. He was stopped, however, as he ran into someone else, someone much taller than he was. It was Matt._

_Tears were running down his brother's face, but there was something else that was clear for him to see. Whether it was the balled up fist or the intense shaking, he could tell his brother was mad, very mad. _

_Matt loosed his fist and stretched his arm out towards his little brother, index finger pointing straight at TK._

_"__You!" is all Matt said, but it was all that needed to be said to convey the message. Matt was telling him that it was his fault. Why did his dad leave? Because of him. Why were his parents fighting all the time? Because of him. And although it didn't happen for another couple of weeks, it also told him that he was also the reason his parents divorced._

That one night had changed his life forever. Well, the divorce had changed his life too, but he was getting used to the lifestyle a divorce required. What didn't leave him was what he learned from that night. It was his fault his parents divorced. It was his fault that he didn't get to see Matt or his dad everyday. It was his fault that he and his family were no longer… family.

He did his best to act like it didn't bother him as much as it had because he really did enjoy his life. His mommy was really nice and loving to him. When he lived with his dad he was always happy to see him even though his dad worked most of the time. He also loved Matt, even though he didn't get to see his brother too often. Matt had helped when the divorce was over and he even apologized for the night he just recounted. That didn't help him, but he acted like he was all right and was doing much better. Six years had now passed since the divorce, so everyone was mostly over all the drama the divorce caused anyways, and since he was so young none of his family expected him to be affected as much as he had.

What he learned from the divorce, though, was that he couldn't trust anyone. He didn't have many friends in his life, and the few that he did usually would turn around the next week or so and make fun of him. He couldn't trust his dad because he was working all the time. Matt, although Matt said he was sorry, he thought Matt still blamed him for the divorce so he couldn't trust him. And it was because of him he had made his mommy so angry that night and why she would sometimes come home some nights hugging a big bottle of booze and crying herself to sleep. He loved his family, but he was the reason they all were upset. Who knew how long it would be before they finally left him for good and he was all alone with himself; a poor, pathetic excuse of a child who did wrong to everyone in his life.

He had been so lost in thought that he didn't even realize the bus had stopped and people were already getting off. He felt someone tap the top of his hat and he looked up to see the little boy he had watched boarding the bus earlier looking down at him with a worried expression.

"Hey, are you getting off the bus?" the boy asked.

He then realized that a few tears had escaped his eyes. He quickly wiped them away and put on a weak smile.

"I'm coming," he said as he stood up and grabbed his green backpack that was packed with all kinds of delicious candy bars and a couple changes of clothes of course. Matt was supposed to have the rest of the clothes he needed for the week already in his cabin.

Once he had thrown the backpack over his shoulders the boy smiled back at him and ran off the bus, probably to catch up with his brother. TK followed behind and once he jumped off the bus the engine roared back to life and the bus driver drove away. Staring off in the distance, he saw a bunch of cabins, a swimming pool, and lots of trees that surrounded the campground. He didn't know what to expect from this summer camp, but he had an expectant feeling that his life was going to change for forever while he was here, and he couldn't help but allow a smile, a real smile, sneak onto his face.

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Don't forget to leave a review! ;D


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Ok, so this chapter is pretty lame in my opinion because all I did was basically write a script for one of the episodes, but this chapter was needed as it gets into Matt's point of view. This is also a really quick chapter and nothing really interesting happens, but this story is just getting started. Also, I'm going to be skipping around quite a bit in this story as I'm trying to follow the Adventure line, but trust me, this story is not going to be really different from the original. I hope you all don't lose interest in this story, and enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 2:

(Matt's Point of View)

_"__Hey TK!" he called out to his little brother, not very enthusiastically. He didn't really want to be here, but both his parents had bugged him to go to watch over TK. They also said it would be some good "brother bonding time." Pssh. Don't get him wrong, he loves his little brother and constantly feels bad about how he used to blame TK for their parents divorce, but all that was done. He knew it wasn't TK's fault; if anything he was more to blame than TK. And to think TK had only been two years old at the time of the divorce, and he was only four- back then he would've said four and a half because even being half a year older is really important to little kids. He didn't blame TK; he blamed his parents. How could they break up and not care about the consequences he would have to face? TK was too little to be too affected by the divorce, but he was old enough to understand everything that was going on. Did his parents not love their children? No, that was a foolish statement, but it didn't mean that his parents had been very selfish and not thought about him or TK when they split up. Oh, right, TK._

_"__Hi Matt," the young boy said with a smile. TK resembled him in looks with blonde hair and blue eyes, but because of their age difference he was a lot taller than TK who had to really look up to see his brother. TK also wore that ridiculous green hat backwards; he would never wear a hat over his hair. Not just because it took him a good twenty minutes to get his hair perfect, but also he wouldn't get any attention from the girls if he didn't._

_"__Hey there squirt. Have a good bus ride?"_

_"__It was ok. Which tent do we stay in?"_

_"__We're not staying in a tent, we've got our own cabin!" he said pointing behind him to a lone cabin sitting by itself. TK smiled a little._

_"__You mean we get that whole thing to ourselves?"_

_He sighed. "I wish."_

_"__Who are we living with then, Matt?"_

_"__Well there's us two, that guy laying on that tree branch…"_

_"__You mean that guy who has crazier hair than you?"_

_TK just had to make a hair joke. "Yes. His name's Tai. That little red head typing on his computer is Izzy. He's staying with us too. Then there's that girl with the blue bowl hat, Sora. There's also…"_

_"__You mean they're letting boys and girls stay in the same cabin?"_

_"__I didn't come up with the rules TK," he snapped. He was getting annoyed with TK's interruptions. Why couldn't TK just let him finish with the stupid introductions! Ok, he was in a bad mood and probably shouldn't have yelled at his brother like that, but he really didn't want to be here right now. Plus as long as he could remember he always had been a bit touchy. If you push his buttons right, he was going to explode on you._

_TK looked down at the ground and said in a quiet voice, "Sorry Matt."_

_"__Good, now that guy with the blue hair and the… medical bag? He's Joe and he's staying with us too. And finally there's one more… now where did she…?"_

_"__Oh hello there!" a high-pitched feminine voice said, coming out of nowhere. There was a streak of pink as Mimi, he presumed, moved towards TK and gave the little tyke a hug. After Mimi let go of TK she continued, "Is this your little brother you were talking about?_

_He nodded and introduced the two of them to each other. After those were done, Mimi ran off towards a group of girls nearby uttering something about dresses and flowers and the color pink. _

_After all the fuss cleared up he asked TK, "Come on. Your stuff's already inside."_

_TK nodded and followed him slowly, still appearing to be sad from his snappy comment. Finally guilt got the better of him and he kneeled so that he was face-to-face with his brother and put his hands on his brother's shoulders. TK looked up at him with sad eyes._

_"__Look, TK, I'm sorry I yelled at you back there. I shouldn't have done that. Forgive me?" he asked._

_TK hesitated before putting on a small smile and shook his head._

_"__Good, now I want this weekend to be as much fun as possible so how about after we unpack your stuff we go to the pool. Sound good?"_

_"__Yeah!"_

Needless to say, they did not end up going swimming. Not too long after they left the cabin after unpacking TK's stuff, the weather went all freaky and a blizzard started up. Then there was the aurora- Izzy claimed it was impossible for the 'aurora borealis' to occur where they were at but he still didn't know what else to call it- and then the huge tidal wave sucked them up landing them in a different world.

He couldn't believe all of that had happened in one day, but yet it had. Within a few short hours he and his cabin mates had been taken to the 'Digital World,' befriended these strange creatures called digimon, watch these creatures change forms and fight off a huge red bug, rode on a fish boat, found and tried using these broken phone booths, fought off a new digimon, Shellmon, which Agumon had to change forms again into Greymon to defeat, ran away from two huge and feisty Monochromon, and then discovered this lake that had this weird trolley cart sitting on some random island. How all of that fit into one day he had no idea.

At least right now, playing his harmonica, he was able to escape, in a sense, from it all and process it. Somehow he and his friends had ended up in this place called the Digital World. Where this 'Digital World' was, he had no idea. On the other side of the world? Or is it a different world completely? And then there were those mini-monsters that practically became their shadows. But they were a lot stronger than a shadow. Case and point being Agumon digivolving to Greymon. How that little guy had been able to change into a much bigger guy confused the heck out of him. And what about Gabumon? Could Gabumon change forms like that as well? Speaking of the devil…

"What a wonderful sound!" Gabumon exclaimed.

What was he doing here? Wasn't he supposed to be keeping TK warm?

TK. He didn't know why, but something was really bothering him about TK. For some reason, the Digital World was making him feel differently about his little brother. Being here made him feel like he had to be his brother's guardian. There clearly was some real danger here, and TK is so young and so small. TK could get hurt in a place like this, and, no offense to Patamon, but the little flying guinea pig didn't seem like he could do much in a fight. That's why it was up to him to be there for his little brother. He had to keep TK from getting hurt. Besides, he couldn't lose his brother. TK was the only family member he could really count on being there for him. With his dad working and his mom not even living in the same house as him, TK was the only consistent family member he had. He couldn't lose TK; he had to be the best big brother to TK that he could.

He stopped playing his harmonica. Rocks burst and flew into the air. The lake's water instantly became rough with waves and started swirling, forming a whirlpool. TK!

"Oh no!" he cried out.

Then the water jumped into the air as something popped out from the depths. He could make out a green, sea-serpent with a yellow mask growling at Tai and Agumon who were on the island standing close to the trolley cart.

"Seadramon," Gabumon informed him. Great, another bad digimon.

Seadramon then started swimming away from the island, but the digimon was pulling the island with it. He could hear his friends voices in the distance, clearly in fear.

"The land's moving!"

After pulling them through the lake a ways, Seadramon looked at the island threateningly and slammed his tail into it, sending the others to the ground. The sea serpent then dove under the water and started hitting the island again.

Enough. He couldn't stand it anymore.

"TK!" he yelled as he dove into the cold, chilling water and started swimming towards the island. He faintly heard Gabumon utter, "Matt, I'm just letting you know my fur's gonna get wet and I'm gonna stink."

As if it mattered when the others were in danger! He didn't pay any attention to his partner and kept on swimming. TK. He had to get to TK. He had to protect him at all costs. He had to be TK's big brother.

Almost there. Almost there.

"TK over here!"

His little brother ran over to the side of the island he was approaching and wanred, "Matt be careful, or the monster will get you."

The island then shook from another beating by Seadramon and TK fell into the water. No!

"TK!"

Luckily Gomamon had fell into the water as well and got TK above water. Good. He's safe. But now, he came to realize, he was in the water along with that crazy digimon.

Joe cheered, "Gomamon go!"

"Hurry up Matt!" Tai called out.

"Seadramon is back!" Tentomon warned.

Too much going on, but he still needed to protect TK. He quickly formed a plan in his head.

"Gomamon, take TK," he ordered.

"Right," the seal digimon said before swimming back to the island. Now it was time.

"Hey! Over here you over grown water lizard!"

He swam away from the island and locked eyes with Seadramon. Gabumon was closely following behind.

"Blue Blaster! Hyaaa!"

Gabumon's blue fire-breath struck Seadramon's face but didn't do anything more than aggravate the digimon. Great…

Seadramon flicked its tail, which was right underneath Gabumon, and Gabumon went flying towards the island.

"I hate…"

He didn't get to hear the rest as he suddenly was being pulled, with great force, under water. Then he felt Seadramon's tail wrap around his body and squeeze tightly. Next thing he knew he was high up in the air, trapped. He didn't really imagine his plan working out this way.

"Ahhhh! Gabumon!"

Due to the intensity of the situation, he didn't hear what the others were saying and all of the voices seemed to muddle together. But then he heard one voice, Gabumon's voice, very distinct.

"I don't understand any of this, but I have to save Matt. What's a little stinky fur compared to a friend like him?"

Then he felt something in his pocket start to shake. It was his digivice. The device let out a beam of light that flew towards Gabumon. Light enveloped his partner and he could see Gabumon starting to change forms.

"Gabumon!"

"Gabumon digivolve to…. Garurumon!"

Next thing he knew there was a big white and blue wolf flying through the air right at him. The wolf struck Seadramon's tail and freed him from the sea serpent's grasp. Water, we meet again.

Once he rose back to the surface he swam as fast as he could back to the island, sneaking a peak back at the battle. The wolf digimon was biting Seadramon's neck causing Seadramon to wince in pain, but then that red tail struck the digimon sending him too into the water.

Finally he reached dry land and was on his knees, panting for air as water mercilessly dripped off his body. It was then he realized that the wolf digimon was actually his partner, and that his partner was in danger.

"Matt are you alright?"

He saw his brother out of the corner of his eye, but since he was with TK his main focus was on his partner.

"Yeah, but where's Gabumon?"

Where was his partner. He clearly saw Seadramon but Gabumon, or whoever that new digimon was, was nowhere to be seen.

Just when he thought he had lost his partner, Gabumon resurfaced. Seadramon dove his head in to attack, but Gabumon hit him with his own tail. His partner then sped around in the water like, what did Tentomon just say, a rounding torpedo?

Things were starting to look good, that is until Seadramon started blowing freezing cold air at his partner. The water quickly froze and Gabumon was covered in ice, shaking from the cold.

'Come on Gabumon,' he thought to himself.

Seadramon didn't stop his attack, but the digimon had unknowingly given his partner firm ground to stand on. Gabumon quickly shook off the ice and cried out, "Howling Blaster!"

An intense stream of blue fire countered Seadramon's attack and flew right at the sea serpent's yellow-masked face. The attack was a direct hit, causing Seadramon to fall backwards and slam down hard into the water. He experienced so much relief and couldn't help but cheer like a little girl at his partner's victory. It was ok, TK sounded even more like a girl than he did.

It didn't take long before Garurumon- he had overheard his partner's new name when the others were talking after the battle- dedigivolved into Gabumon and swam back onto the island.

"Gabumon!"

"I need to find a good way to keep my fur dry!"

"You digivolved into Garurumon just in time!" And he meant it. His eyes were close to bulging out from Seadramon's deadly grip.

TK then ran up to his partner and gave Gabumon a big hug.

"Gabumon, thanks for saving my brother."

"Any time, little friend."

"Matt, you were so awesome against that monster!" TK complimented.

He couldn't help but blush. He had been trying to protect TK and be a good big brother the entire time, and he sure felt good that he and Gabumon had succeeded.

"You think so?"

"You were the man!"

"And you're the wolf-man!"

He heard laughter from the others and couldn't help but laugh along with them. For the first time in a long time he actually was happy.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

Hello again everyone. Quick thank you to all those who reviewed, favorited, and followed so far; you guys are seriously the best and I hope you stick alone for the rest of this story and the rest of the series. Some info on this story: I think it's going to be a 15 chapter story? Also, I am going to get into the other digidestineds' characters and stuff and do some fun things with them along the way; so it won't just be a TK and Matt-only story, though it mostly will be them. The two "Unknown's Point of View"'s in this chapter are two different "unknowns", and I am sure you can guess who they are, but I'm going to stay a little mysterious with these two guys/gals for a bit cause I have some stuff I wanna do with them too, especially later on in the series. Ok, I'm rambling on too much, so here is the chapter! I hope you guys like it and, as always, please review! :)

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Chapter 3:

(Unknown's Point of View)

Strong. They were very strong indeed. And they were getting stronger faster than he had expected. First it was Kuwagamon, then Shellmon, Seadramon, Meramon, Andromon, Monzaemon, Unimon, and then Leomon and Ogremon. Ok, they didn't technically defeat Leomon and Ogremon because of the avalanche Devimon caused, but they had been putting up a good fight before the demon intervened. Yes, his plan was working; _he _didn't stand a chance against him anymore.

A part of him wanted his enemy to return to the light, to turn away from the darkness he had surrounded himself with, and come back to his rightful place. But that didn't seem like it was ever going to happen, at least not yet anyways.

There was still hope for his opponent. Hope. What a strong, mysterious power. The digidestined of hope seemed too young to be held responsible for and wield such a power, but it was meant to be this way. Children are the ones who are able to hope the most. A little child's hope of Santa Claus coming to his house on Christmas Eve bearing gifts of joy, happiness, light, or the hope that a dad going off to fight for his country will come back soon and safe with not even the slightest chance of anything bad happening to him; this hope was the strongest, purest of them all.

This was why the young blonde had been entrusted with hope and the little girl not present with the digidestineds was given light. For the real power of these two forces to be used, mastered, an innocent child was required. It was a risky business, using such young ones to hold that much power, because children were easily swayed. A few convincing words said at the right time could deceive a child's heart. The power that was meant for good could so easily be destroyed if the child was attacked at a time where he or she is weak. Children may be the purest of all humans, and they may even be the strongest at times, but they can easily be swayed.

This was why he had to be here. He had to watch over his digidestineds, the ones who were going to defeat all the evil digimon that threatened the Digital World, starting with Devimon.

"Sir, we have some new information!"

He turned his gaze towards the fellow standing beside him. The man looked just like he did. After all, he had made him as an exact copy of him and his… enemy.

"Ah, Andrew, what is it?"

"Some digimon from the Continent of Server have spotted the Fallen Ones near the Pyramid."

"What?" he exclaimed. What would they be doing down there? Surely they knew the digidestineds were here on File Island. Why would they be so far away? Unless they knew that he would be here on File, leaving the rest of the Digital World free to wreak destruction.

"Is… _he _with them?" he asked Andrew, already knowing what the answer would be, though hoping he was wrong.

"Yes, the digimon have reported seeing him. He is mobilizing troops and preparing to attack. What should we do sir?"

"Hmm…" he thought long and hard about what he should do. He could go to Server and stop the attacks, but he couldn't leave the digidestineds here alone. But if the Fallen destroyed the Pyramid… that would not be good. They would gain access to the portal and he couldn't allow that. He weighed his options before deciding what he had to do.

"Yes, we must go and stop them."

"And what of the digidestineds, Sir?"

It unsettled him, but he couldn't worry about the digidestineds. They had all the power they needed to defeat Devimon. They would be all right on their own for now. The new enemies coming up, they would be more of a struggle, but right now they had all they needed to win. They could restore File Island to peace and then come to Server and start working there. Yes, this was what had to be done.

"They will be all right on their own. Now, prepare the Mekanorimon."

"Yes sir."

Andrew left and started preparing everyone for take-off. He hadn't taken many with him to File Island, so it didn't take long before everyone was set to go. He had a bad feeling about leaving File, but the digidestineds would be fine. He had seen their strength, and although he especially didn't want to leave Hope alone, he had to trust that he and the others wouldn't let hope be swayed while he was gone. If they were going to win in the end, hope had to be a part of the attacking force. Without hope, they would be hopeless against the fight. Hope was their king on the chessboard; he needed to be protected at all costs, and he for sure would have a lot of enemies going after just him, and not afraid to take down the pawns trying to protect him either. Not that the other digidestineds were pawns. They were very important as well. Maybe he shouldn't go…

"Sir, we are prepared to leave."

Ugh, he had to go. He sighed as he turned his back to the island and got inside the nearest Mekanorimon. The digimon took to the air and they started flying high-speed towards Server, where they would go to the Pyramid and fight _him _again.

* * *

(TK's Point of View)

Walking. That had become his new hobby the past couple of days he's been here in this crazy place called the Digital World. Walking and being attacked by evil digimon that were at least three or four times bigger than he was- not that he was very big but that wasn't the point. It seemed like he had already almost lost his life so many times that he wouldn't be able to count them on his hands any longer. And all of those times he could have lost his life, he didn't because someone else had always saved him. The first time was Garurumon. That battle was the first time he felt like his brother actually loved him and had maybe, just maybe, had forgiven him from ruining their parents' marriage. As they continued fighting digimon influenced by those black gear things, he started to realize that the others cared about him as well. They had spent like five nights in the Digital World so far and in that short of time he could see the friendships that were forming, even if this friendship was shown by making witty comments to each other like they usually did to Mimi.

Even he had been opening up more to the others. When he was back in the real world he never would talk to anyone, not even his own mother. He kept everything bottled up inside, and he got real lonely a lot of the time. With his new friends, everything had changed. He started to feel like he belonged somewhere, and when he started to feel like he was a hindrance to the others, Patamon was always there to cheer him up. That little guinea pig- don't tell Patamon he referred to him as a pig because the little guy hates being called that- had become his best friend on this adventure. They were always by each other's side, always laughing together, and Patamon always did his best to protect him from danger. Yeah, even though he was in a world he had never heard of before, was living in the wilderness without a clue as to where they were, and was being attacked by vicious monsters every day, his life seemed to be taking a turn for the better.

Patamon must have noticed how quiet he was because he asked, "Hey TK, whatcha thinkin' about?"

He frowned at first, "I was thinking about what it was like back in my world before I came here."

"Do you really miss those video games you were talking about that much?"

"No silly. I was thinking about… how I…"

"Look! A mansion!" Joe suddenly shouted out, disrupting his and Patamon's conversation.

"Or maybe even a hotel! Come on!" Tai charged forward. He ran along with Sora and Izzy by his side. Everyone else in the group ran after them.

As he tried to keep up with the others he saw what they were talking about. "Trap" was the first thing that went through his mind. There was a clearing in the forest that led right to a tan building with a blue roof and a couple of pointed towers to the side and in the back. There must have been ten or fifteen windows along the front of the building, and a small balcony, supported by two pillars, was perched above the entrance. The grounds of the mansion were nicely managed as the grass was cleanly cut. A smooth pavement led right up to the building.

"We may have found another life force! Look at the grounds! I mean, somebody had to have mowed the lawn!"

Thanks Izzy, now he had to worry about some sort of alien attack.

"What a place. I can't believe my eyes. It's just too good to be true."

Yes, that's why it was a trap. Or an alien mansion.

"I hope they have a hot tub, just as long as it's not… too hot."

Joe must have been too excited to wait and find out what the building was because he and Matt ran right up to the doors.

"Wait you guys; you can't just go charging in there!"

That's right, because it's a trap. But who was he to say anything. Although he had made friends with the others and had started to enjoy their company, he still knew his rightful place in the group. He was the low man on the totem pole. He was the little 'baby brother' that had to be protected all the time. Heck, it was even his digimon that hadn't learned how to digivolve yet. Not that it was Patamon's fault, and he definitely didn't blame the little orange fur ball- don't tell Patamon about that nickname either. He just felt like he was so… helpless, worthless, meaningless. What would they care about his opinions? That's why he just let the others do all the planning and stuff.

Well, even if he was going to say anything it was too late now; Joe was opening the door and already walking in the building.

The others ran after them and he followed behind slowly.

"Are you ok TK?"

"I'm fine Patamon, I just…"

He shivered and ran his hands up and down his arms.

"Do you feel that?" he asked his partner.

"Yeah, it's… cold."

"I don't have a good feeling about this place Patamon."

"Me either, but the others are already inside."

"TK! Come on!" Mimi called for him. She was about to go into the building with the others, Palmon by her side, and was waving him on. He sighed.

The others were debating on something when he entered the building, probably whether or not they were going to stay here or not. His first impression of the inside didn't make him feel any better about the place. It was just some huge, empty mansion that they randomly came across in the middle of the Digital World. Sorry for his suspicions.

But just when he was about to tell the others how he felt about the place, something caught his eye.

"That's beautiful!"

"Hmm…" Joe turned around and saw what he was looking at, "Oh, yeah."

"Look it! It's an angel!"

"What's an angel, TK?" his partner asked.

"Something special that is sent to watch over you, kind of like you guys."

"If this is a spooked out haunted house would there be pictures of angels hanging on the walls? I don't think so!"

He had to admit, Joe had a point, but he was too interested in the picture to pay the others any attention. The picture displayed just an ordinary looking angel. A man or woman, dressed in an all-white cloak with white wings extending out of the angel's back. The angel was looking at a bright light, probably heaven or something, and had his hands the way a person kneeling and praying would. There was something about this particular painting that seemed to be calling out to him, trying to draw him near. He almost lost all recognition of the others, but they were loud as they started running up the stairs muttering something about food. His stomach grumbled as if to say 'Go with them and eat you little twit.' He wasn't one to not listen to his stomach so he followed Mimi and went after the others.

"Hey wait for me!"

Sure enough, when they caught up with them there was a dining room with a huge table and grub all over. The digimon instantly sat and started filling themselves on various meats and fruits. Once Joe had tested the food, more like gave in to the temptation, everyone else had joined in and eaten until their tummies were full and satisfied. He had to admit, the food was delicious and no aliens had jumped them so far, so it was pretty nice that they stumbled across this place, even if it was a little creepy that there had been just the right number of chairs and plates set up at the table for all of them.

They ate for quite a while and sat at the table to talk a little bit before they decided to check out the rest of the mansion. After splitting up into groups of two or so, they found that the building had robes they could change into, hot baths along with towels, bathrooms- and they were real bathrooms, not just a tree and some leaves but a real toilet and real toilet paper too-, and plenty of beds. There wasn't much debate to what they should do next since Mimi had instantly run off towards the baths.

Sora had told the rest of them, all of the boys, that they were not to go anywhere near her or Mimi while they were taking their baths. A boy side and girl side was quickly established and everyone went to their own respective side, except for Gomamon who snuck in the girl's side.

After throwing his clothes off, he jumped in the water and found himself basically in paradise. The water was just the right temperature and he could feel all the dirt and grime that had accumulated on his body be washed off. The others seemed to enjoy the bath just as much as he had except for Gabumon who was too shy to get in the water and Joe who was too shy to get naked in front of everybody. He actually was more worried that Joe wouldn't find the bath because he didn't have his glasses on, but Joe was more worried about embarrassing himself with his… you know.

During the bath Gomamon got discovered and thrown over from the girl's side to their side. It was funny actually because Joe was just about to get in the water and just dropped his towel when Gomamon crashed right into him causing Joe and Gomamon to fall belly first into the bath. Other than that, the night was really peaceful and relaxing.

Once they dried off, they put on the robes they found and jumped into the beds.

As he landed on his bed, he thought he was landing on a cloud. The mattress was that soft.

"The only thing better would be bunk-beds!"

The others added in their own comments about how great the beds were, but then the conversation turned depressing when they started talking about home. Everyone was sitting up in their bed looking down, sadly. He lied down on his bed.

Why did everyone else miss home so much? What did they all have back home that they were missing? Well, they probably had other friends that they hung out with. They had parents that weren't divorced more than likely. They had things they actually liked to do back at home like play sports, mess around on the computer, study- for Joe, no one else missed studying-, singing, shopping, etc. What did he have? He had his family. He had to admit, he did miss his mom. He even missed his dad. He wished he was closer to his family like everyone else. But he couldn't be… because of him. His family couldn't be happy because of him.

"I bet our disappearance caused a big fuss at school and all over town. But we've been gone so long everybody must have given up."

"Mom and dad wouldn't give up, they wouldn't stop."

He wished he could believe what he just said. Why did he even just say that? Hmm, the more he thought about it, he realized that it because it was true. His parents had their differences and they had healed from the divorce in different ways, but they still loved their children. His mom, when she wasn't sitting at home with a bottle of wine right next to her, was always very protective of him. She always told him that he was the only boy he needed in her life, besides Matt of course. Even his dad always was happy to see him whenever he came home from work early enough to see him before it was bedtime. It was true, his family did love each other, but they couldn't be together, live together, be happy together, because of him.

Everyone had said goodnight and someone turned the lights off, but he didn't pay any attention to his friends. The chilling feeling he felt when he first entered the mansion returned. He pulled the covers tighter to his body, trying to draw out some more heat from them.

"Are you cold TK?"

"No… uh, yeah. Just a little."

"Does this help?"

Patamon moved closer to him and snuggled right up to him. He put his arm around his partner and smiled, feeling a lot warmer than he had.

Patamon. Patamon was always there for him these past couple of days. Although he couldn't digivolve yet, Patamon had risked his life for him so many times. His partner already seemed to be able to read him like a book, and even he was starting to learn more about his partner as time went on. For example, he could feel his partner's unease right now.

"Patamon, you'll digivolve soon. Don't worry."

He felt his partner relax just a bit.

"How do you know that TK?"

"Well… I don't really. I just believe in you. Have a little hope Patamon."

Patamon rubbed his head against his in appreciation.

"Thanks TK."

"No problem piggy!"

They then broke into hushed laughter, trying hard not to wake the others by suppressing their giggles. That chilling feeling was still there, but the love he had for his partner overpowered the cold feeling. He may not like his life right now or miss anything too much from back home, but that all could change. Being in the Digital World has taught him at least one thing, there is hope. Every battle against evil digimon seemed like it was hopeless, but one of their digimon always digivolved at the right time. Whenever they needed a place to stay, a mansion appeared before them giving them food, a bath, and a comfy bed. Things could change. He still had a lot more to learn about himself before he went about changing his life, though, and he had to… you know, get out of this Digital World. But at least now he knew that there was still hope for his life yet.

"TK, I'm glad you're my partner."

A weight went off his shoulders hearing that comment. He always felt like he was the one who prevented his partner from digivolving. As if he was not meant to be Patamon's partner. But hearing Patamon say that, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"And I'm glad you're my digimon."

"Goodnight TK."

"Goodnight buddy."

* * *

(Unknown's Point of View)

"Sir, _he_ and the others with him are leaving File and heading towards Server."

He laughed. His brother was so easy to deceive. And so were the digidestineds. Those children were such… children. Their childish innocence had caused them to fall right into Devimon's trap. Fools. They all were fools. It was only so long before he destroyed the digidestineds and then his brother.

"Good, now go. Take Stefan and Akira with you and make sure you keep my brother, uh, busy."

"Will do sir."

With that, two of his fallen friends left him, leaving him alone. The other four were already in Server, headed by Benjamin, and accompanied by a Bakemon disguised to look like him. Now he had just what he wanted.

His brother put way too much faith in these digidestineds. Sure, they had been pretty impressive so far, but they were young, childish. They still had much to learn if they were going to help his brother defeat him. Hmph, they would be lucky to defeat Devimon.

What had that prophecy said? The youngest would be the one to defeat Devimon or something like that? Ha, the youngest hadn't even been able to digivolve yet. But, he still didn't underestimate hope's power. The boy had potential. He may seem like an innocent little kid on the outside, but already the power of hope was radiating from the boy. And that was even without the extra power from the crest.

His plan was working perfectly. It was almost too easy. The digidestineds had arrived. Devimon had established his reign over File Island and using the black gears to his demonic pleasures. Etemon was laying his Dark Network over the continent of Server. Myotismon built his castle and was preparing to enter the real world. And then there were the Dark Masters, patiently waiting for their time to take charge and create their envisioned Spiral Mountain. And then there was this.

He held the tiny black orb in the palm of his hand. It didn't seem like much from first glance, but this tiny ball had more power than met the eye. It was a ball of pure despair. Think it sounds funny? Then just make sure you were near it when he smashed it into the ground. Before he and his other fallen ones had left the Pyramid, he had went into the Dark World they had created and embodied some of the dark power into this tiny orb.

The Dark World. Its name didn't give it any justice. When he and his brother first created the Digital World, they came up with the idea of digimon being reborn after they died. Some digimon, they found out, were evil, down to the bone evil. His brother didn't think these digimon deserved to be reborn, so they created a Dark World where all the data from a destroyed digimon would go. They then created a digimon by the name of Anubismon who sent the "good" digimon data back to the Digital World and the "bad" digimon data was scattered throughout the Dark World. Because of this, the Dark World became a place of despair. A place where no digimon returned from. A place where hatred, regret, pain, and sorrow ruled. It was a place of despair, hopelessness, darkness. And that was what he held in his hands right now. Not even the child of hope had the power to resist this energy. When the right time came, he would crush that orb and send the energy straight at the child of hope. The nature of the orb is to demolish all hope. Turn all light into darkness, all happiness into sorrow, all hope into despair. Hope would be tainted, and through and through, destroyed. With the fall of hope, the rest of the digidestineds would follow soon after. And nothing stood in his way. Not any digidestined. Not any digimon. Not his brother. He was going to succeed. He was going to be ruler of this world.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Hello again! Here's chapter four of Tainted. I meant for this to include all of the events going on in between the separation and meeting back up at Infinity Mountain, but I found that I only did Matt and Tai's thing and ended up at 4000 words so I figured it was a good stopping point. Please let me know in a review or whatever if the chapter length for this story so far is good! I know that in my other stories I either did way too short or way too long chapters so I think this is a good balance, but I want your guys' opinion. Plus tell me what you think of this story! The next few chapters will be up pretty soon (like two weeks max?) and then it starts getting in to the good stuff! Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4:

(Matt's Perspective)

"TK! TK can you hear me?! TK!"

How long had it been since he first landed in this frozen wasteland and started looking for his little brother? He had no idea; it seemed like an eternity. Gabumon was following behind him, helping as much as he could, but the situation was hopeless. His friends were gone. His brother, his little, defenseless, eight year old brother who needed looking after, gone. Snow kept falling down relentlessly and the wind blew with such ferocity that it was difficult just to keep moving forward. There was no way he was going to find TK in this. His little brother wouldn't be able to survive this; heck, he didn't even know if he could survive this.

Gabumon put his claw on his arm trying to get him to slow down, but he shook his partner off.

"Where are you?! T…K…" he uttered as his strength left him and he fell belly-first on the snowy ground. It was so cold. His insides were shivering. It felt like all liquid inside his body was turning to ice. Every breath pained him. And his stomach was growling with hunger.

Gabumon was talking to him, but he couldn't hear a thing with the loud wind and his heavy coughing. Then he heard something about a cave and turned to see his partner pointing towards a cave nearby. Maybe TK was in there!

"A cave! Yes! That's where TK would be!"

"TK!" he yelled as he ran into the cave. Looking around he found… nothing.

"I'm sorry Matt."

"I was so sure he would be in here… but, then again, TK never liked caves that much."

There was a funny story behind that.

_"__Dad, where are we going?" TK asked as they climbed up the mountainside. His dad had taken the day off work- that was the first crazy thing that happened that day since his dad never took a day off work- and then he and his father went to pick up TK saying that they were going on a camping trip. _

_"__I told you son, we're going camping," his father said happily._

_He was sitting in the back seat next to TK so he looked over at his four-year old brother and shrugged his shoulders. _

_They were in the car for a long time. Paved roads had been long past and they had been bumping up and down on dirt pathways that he wasn't even sure were meant for cars. Finally his dad pulled over and they got out of the van. _

_"__Now are you going to tell us where we are?" he asked his father. He wasn't one too keen on camping. There was no way he could keep his hair styled perfectly if he was outdoors all the time. _

_His father laughed. "It's a surprise. Let's hike a little bit and then I'll tell you."_

_TK sighed, "But daaaaad…"_

_"__No 'buts.' Now, grab your bags out of the back and let's get going. I want to be there before nightfall."_

_He and his brother reluctantly threw on their backpacks they had filled with some extra clothes and a sleeping bag. TK's sleeping bag was in their dad's bag seeing that TK wasn't big enough yet to carry such a heavy load. Once they were all set, his father pushed a button on his key ring that caused the van to honk its horn, signaling the vehicle was locked._

_He wished he could hear that honk again. At least then he would be able to get to civilization. But right now they seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. His legs were sore from the constant uphill hike. Trees obscured their view, but they had passed by some pretty sites. One of their break spots had been right by a stream that flowed downward in many spiraling direction. They had even seen a couple of shikas drink from the stream. All kinds of birds whistled from above. TK had taken a hobby of trying to mimic each bird he heard which only seemed to annoy the birds as they would reply with a much louder, agitated call. Hm, he had to admit, despite how much he missed being home, everything out here was pretty cool. It just seemed so peaceful, something he rarely got a chance to experience in his life. And he was spending this time with two of the most important people in his life, TK and his father. _

_"__Ah, I think we are at the top!"_

_There was a clearing in the trees above, and his father picked up his pace to reach the clearing. It was a good thing they were almost at the top of wherever they were because he didn't know how much longer he could hike. TK had to be pretty tired too._

_His father made it and was looking out into the distance, an expression of awe clear across his face. "Hurry up you too!" _

_"__Coming daddy!" TK called out, a little weakly, and ran after his father. He sighed and started moving faster as well. When he finally caught up to his dad and brother he gasped. He couldn't believe his eyes._

_He was on top a cliff looking down hundreds of feet to an endless number of trees rising and falling as the ground rose up and down forming various hills all over. The sun was falling and dawn was breaking. A huge mountain blocked the sun, but a brilliant display of orange and red light shone in all directions, lighting up the sky, making it almost seem like it was aglow. _

_"__Kids, we are at the top of Mount Takao!"_

_"__You mean you made us climb up an entire mountain?!" TK exclaimed. _

_"__Well… yeah."_

_"__Jeez dad! I feel like I'm dying of exhaustion!"_

_"__It's all part of the experience TK…" his father tried, but TK started walking away from them. He laughed as his relatives quarreled. He had to admit, he never once thought he could climb up a whole mountain. He had done something he never thought he would be able to do before. It made him feel like he could do anything. Like he could…_

_"__Look! There's a cave!"_

_He stopped his thought train and turned around to see his little brother running off to a nearby cave. His father tried catching up to TK and was yelling at him to stop, but TK was too fast. For being exhausted, the boy definitely had the strength left to run like a roadrunner._

_Jogging after them, he watched as TK ran into the dark cave. It didn't take too long before he heard TK scream. Adrenaline and worry started running through his body as he tried to make it to the cave. _

_Before he knew it, TK was running out of the cave, still screaming in panic, and was being followed by a… pig! TK was being chased by a pig!_

_He stopped dead in his tracks and burst out into laughter as he watched the tiny brown boar charge after TK. TK ran in circles over and over again, screaming for help, and the pig, who was not threatening TK at all, seemed to be enjoying the scene it had found itself in. _

_It didn't take too long before his father finally scared the boar away and had a panting and crying TK in his arms. He decided he'd better check to make sure TK was alright, while he tried to suppress his laughter._

_His dad was muttering soothing words to TK who was still shaking in fear. When he finally reached them, he asked, "TK… um, are you ok?"_

_TK looked up at him with a dead serious expression on his face, and with an unwavering tone his brother said, "I HATE caves!"_

So a cave probably would've been the last place TK would be, even though his brother had to have been over his fear of pigs by now; he did have one as a digimon partner.

He heard Gabumon behind him and turned to see a fire crackling loudly as it fought to gain advantage over the cold it was in.

"There now, come and sit by the fire. You can't help TK or anyone for that matter if you get sick. You must rest to stay strong."

"No, I gotta go back out there and find him. I feel fine!"

And then another cough attack started only proving that he wasn't fine at all.

"Sit down! You are not leaving this cave!"

"Hey…"

"I'll go looking for TK."

"Huh?"

"Hey, come on Matt I'm your digimon, remember? I'm here to help you through thick and thin, whether it's hot or cold. Heh, besides, I've got a built in warm fur coat which you haven't."

Gabumon then proceeded to push him down to the ground, forcing him to sit right in front of the fire.

"Come on. Sit right here and get warm; I mean it. I'll be back in two shakes of a digi-tail!"

With that Gabumon ran out of the cave and back into the blizzard outside. Instantly a pang of guilt went through him.

'Poor little TK, it's just not right. He's my little brother and I should be the one out there looking for him.'

It was then he decided what he had to do. He had to run after his little brother. He had to go find his cave-fearing sibling. TK was family, and TK was his little brother. He wasn't going to fail his rightful duty as an older brother. Besides, TK was the only one who hadn't digivolved to champion yet. No offense to Patamon, but if Ogremon and Leomon went after them then they would be toast. They needed someone to protect them, and he was going to make sure he was there to do just that.

"TK!"

* * *

(Tai's Perspective)

Man, watching your friends being tossed around in the sky on their beds and then falling down onto a piece of land that was flying away from some weird ogre, a huge lion who walked on two feet and carried a sword, and a demon really does something to you. Not only that, but then there was the abominable snowman that attacked them, but luckily they had destroyed the black gear and Frigimon had helped them get to another frozen wasteland island that one of his friends had landed on. Eventually they found Matt and Gabumon and were happy to see each other. Things were finally starting to look good, well somewhat good. Five of his friends were still missing, and Gabumon had a cold.

"How'd you get sick, you're the one with the fur around here?"

Matt then grasped his arm and pulled causing him to turn around.

"Stop making fun of him. Leave him alone Tai!"

Oh really Matt? You and your big hair were going to start something now of all times? No, he couldn't let it go.

"Hey Matt, why don't you chill out? I was only trying to see how we could help him!"

Gabumon then exploded into a symphony of sneezes.

"Gabumon, I think you oughta go take a rest for a little while."

"I think you're right."

Their partner then left back to the cave. He then turned his attention back to Matt.

"We have to figure out what we're going to do next."

"Well isn't it obvious? We have to go search for all the others!"

"Yeah, right, but how are we supposed to do that? You heard what Frigimon said; everyone landed on different islands. Unless you got an airplane stashed around here someplace I think we're stuck."

Matt huffed. "Well I guess we'll ask Frigimon for help then."

Now he was getting annoyed. "Weren't you listening to me? He said they were scattered around all over the place. He only has two arms; he's not an octopus."

"Then I'll have to make a raft out of some of these trees, ok?"

"Matt calm down! Wow, what's eating you dude? I'm on your side. I'll help you get off this island if we have to build surfboards ok? Look, the others will be fine without us for now. We gotta focus on the real deal."

"Real deal?"

"What, I've got to spell it out for you? We got to know if this island is moving toward that place Devimon talked about."

"That's not the real deal!" Matt then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and drew his fist back. "You doofus. There's nothing more real deal than our friends and finding them and getting us all home safe. And don't you ever forget it! You want to ditch your friends to go off to some far away land then do it but I'm not coming! I'll find TK! I'll find all of them, by myself!"

Matt then proceeded to running away from him like a madman. Figures. Matt was being crazy again. This was why Matt could never make it as leader of the digidestineds. Matt let his love for his friends get in the way of making the right decisions. He wasn't saying that it was wrong to be worried about your friends and go try to find them, but that wasn't the real deal. He loved his friends, but he knew that they were plenty capable enough to fight off any digimon they came across with their respective digimon partner. They were going to be fine own their own, and despite wanting to go looking for them too, he knew that it wouldn't do them any good. His friends had to be trying to get back to Infinity Mountain. That was clearly the spot they were going to meet back up at. They had to get there and then fight that Devimon guy. Running around from island to island would take way too much time and would end up being a waste.

"But Matt! Hey, come on! Don't freak out on me!"

Matt only kept on running, and running… and running. Splitting up would be the last thing they wanted though. That and he was pretty upset at Matt for acting like an idiot. He ran after the blonde and quickly caught up with him thanks to the speed he gained from soccer.

"You're not getting away from me that easily!"

He dove and grabbed Matt's ankles, causing Matt to fall to the ground.

"Nobody runs away while I'm still talking. Now listen! Maybe there's something across the ocean to help us find the others. Why do you have to get so bent out of shape? I know how you feel Matt."

It was then that he realized he said something wrong as Matt quickly turned over and punched him in the face causing him to fly back and land on the snow. A stinging sensation came from his right cheek and he could feel Agumon's warm breath as his partner looked down on him assessing the injuries. Rage built inside of him as Matt taunted, "You don't got a clue about how I feel Tai! You're acting like such a jerk!"

He looked up and saw Matt standing not too far away from where he had fallen. He sat up and uttered, "Who are you calling a jerk, jerk?" and then, with great reflexes, sprang into action and tackled Matt to the ground.

Their partners were trying to get them to stop, but they were too engaged in the fight to pay them any attention.

Matt then flipped him over trying to get on top of him. He fought back causing the two of them to go rolling through the snow, none of them gaining the upper hand. They continued to go down the hill and then hit a dip causing them to go airborne for a few seconds and then land on the ground. He found himself on top and drew his fist back, ready to punch the blonde's face with all his might.

Matt then leaked hundreds of tears and said, "It's TK. He's out there on some strange island and he's all alone."

Realization then clicked inside him and he felt a pang of guilt.

"That's it. Wow."

Matt wasn't being dumb after all; he just really cared about his little brother's safety. And boy did that little kid need looking out after. Sure, TK was only eight years old, but still his partner hadn't learned to digivolve to champion and he was always the one who needed to be saved time and time again. It didn't bother any of them seeing that TK had become everyone's goofy younger brother in a way, but through that they all had realized that TK was defenseless. TK may be able to bring about a smile or maybe a little bit of hope every now and then, but that kid couldn't fend for himself at all. Matt was just worried about TK, and rightfully so. Who knows what type of island TK had landed on?

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard his partner's yells of, "Tai! Get away from that cliff!"

The ground then started to shake and then it broke off. He and Matt were falling to the ground at a fast rate, and it didn't look good.

His hand then grazed across something and he grasped it with all his might causing him to stop his free-fall. He then grabbed Matt's hand as the blonde was about to fall right past him.

"I got you! Whatever you do, just don't let go of my hand!"

Agumon and Gabumon were making their way down the cliff, trying to get to their partners so they could help get them out of this little predicament. But then another voice joined the frenzy calling out, "Ice Blow!"

He didn't have time to look, he just found himself falling yet again, this time Agumon and Gabumon were falling too. He closed his eyes, wishing for the best. Then the landing came, but it wasn't hard rock that he hit; it was a head of snow. Frigimon's head to be more exact. Despite the cushion, they merely bounced off Frigimon and landed on the rocky ground. He heard Agumon and Gabumon screaming and then hit something, probably Frigimon again- the poor snowman- and bounce off.

"It's raining kids and digimon again," he heard Frigimon say as he let go of Matt's hand- he had forgotten to let go during the fall and when they had landed and realized they were still holding hands he had felt quite a bit awkward, but he pardoned it since they were falling to their death- and got to his feet. "I'm going to have to start carrying an umbrella!"

"Thank you Frigimon!" Gabumon and Agumon recited.

"Good timing!"

"Without you we'd be as flat as pancakes!" he said, showing his thanks as well.

Frigimon laughed as he too got to his feet. "Well next time try not to land on my head. Here, take this; I have some food…"

He jumped on the word food. "Excellent! Let's eat!" he called out, instantly grabbing and eating what he hoped were the Digital World's equivalent of grapes. Agumon joined his side and started chowing down too.

"And it's good and tasty just the way I like it!"

Matt joined in the feeding frenzy as well, but Frigimon gave Gabumon some weird plant thing he claimed was an 'old cold remedy.' He didn't want to eat it; Gabumon almost choked on it and spat it out.

Just then something dropped from the sky, groaning and growling like a cave man. Needless to say, he, Matt, and their partners ran out of the way, potentially screaming like little girls as they did so.

"I'll take care of Mojamon," Frigimon announced. All the power to you man.

The two digimon started charging each other, trying to intimidate the other, and then they hit head on. Frigimon had lowered his shoulder and then rammed it into Mojamon, sending him back into the ledge. He instantly recovered and charged at Frigimon again.

"Subzero Ice Punch."

Frigimon punched at Mojaymon, but the sasquatch digimon dodged and grabbed Frigimon's extended arm and then proceeded to throw Frigimon to the ground.

"Boomerang Bone!"

Mojyamon threw some bone-boomerang at them causing the group to fall to the ground. The boomerang returned to Mojaymon who was about ready to attack again, but he had had enough of just watching Frigimon fight. It was his and Agumon's turn to get involved.

"Nice trick Mojyamon, now watch ours!"

"Agumon digivolve to…. Greymon!"

"Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon!"

Garurumon ran at Mojyamon, but sasquatch threw his bone again, this time directed right at Garurumon. The wolf caught the bone in his mouth as if he were playing a casual game of fetch, but then it turned not so casual when Garurumon crushed the bone with its jaw and turned to face Mojaymon, growling harshly.

"That's it Garurumon!" Matt encouraged.

"Come on Greymon!"

"Nova Blast!"

A giant fire ball was released by his dinosaur partner causing Mojyamon to jump out of the way. Mojyamon had jumped in Greymon's dirction, though, and kicked Greymon off his feet, sending him backwards. Greymon hit the ground hard, but quickly got back up to his feet. During the whole process, Frigimon had snuck behind Mojyamon and now had the digimon trapped, holding him back.

"Now, aim for the black gear!"

Greymon took no time in sending off another Nova Blast which hit the gear head on. Frigimon and Mojaymon hit the cliff behind them, knocking away some of the rock, and the gear also was knocked out, hit the ground, rolled a little, and then deteriorated.

"You did it Greymon!"

Mojyamon then started glowing and shrunk down to about half of what his size had been.

"Now that's more like it. Back to standard Mojyamon size. Uh, Garurumon, what are you looking at?"

"Howling Blaster"

He saw what Garurumon was attacking, countless numbers of black gears moving in action were now made visible since Frigimon and Mojyamon knocked away some of the rock on the cliff..

"Wow, just look at all those black gears! There's a mountain of them!"

The two partner digimon dedigivolved and walked up to Mojyamon.

"I feel like I just got ran over by a Monochromon!"

"It was the black gear controlling you Mojyamon."

"That's right; the fight wasn't your fault."

"Woah!"

"The same thing happened to me. It's ok though, no one got hurt."

"This doesn't change anything Tai. We still have to go find the others."

Great, even after all that Matt was going to jump on that train again?

Right when he was about to rebuttal, the black gears started spazzing out, shooting off electric sparks in every direction.

Then the chaos cleared up and the gears started rotating again.

"Look, the gears fixed themselves!"

"It must be Devimon."

"And the island is moving again."

"Hmm," he ran off to see what was going on. He got out his binoculars and fixed them towards Infinity Mountain.

"We're moving alright; the other way! Back toward Infinity Mountain."

"And Devimon."

"If that's true, then this is no time for us to be fighting."

Matt nodded. At least they were on the same page for once. But, despite how annoying Matt was, they had been through thick and thin together and Matt was starting to become one of his best friend, even if he was sort of a rival as well.

They smiled at each other and grasped each other's hand.

"No black gears are going to stop us!"

"Yeah, together we'll be all right."

They then turned to look at the tall, foreboding mountain, different things on their mind. He had the intention of meeting up with the others at the mountain and then taking Devimon on and defeating him. Matt had more of an image of getting to TK and the others and being together first before focusing on Devimon. Either way, they both were working together and had the same goal in mind; get everything back to normal.

"And now I know TK will be all right because he has Patamon to take care of him when I can't be there. And I think as long as we can all trust each other, together it will be a sure bet we can fight and beat Devimon!"


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon! If I had a dollar for every time I typed this...

Ok, so this is the next chapter. I hope to get the next few done because after two or three more chapters, things are really going to start to get interesting and actually be different from the actual canon episodes. By the way, these chapters are actually really hard to write, harder than what I thought they would be, so please review! I also started to find out that I actually like Mimi and Izzy; I never thought I did, but now I can see why they are so special, and why they make a great couple in fan fictions where they are older than like ten years old haha. Anyways, hope you all are having a great day and enjoy this chapter! :D

* * *

Chapter 5:

The jungle. That was where she found herself right now, and she couldn't help but wish she was anywhere else on this crazy world. Take that back, the desert was not a place for a girl like her to be walking around at, but this wasn't the hottest spot either.

"Oh no, humidity."

This place was definitely not going to do anything to help her hair. But then again, the only person that could see her hair right now was her digimon partner.

"Yeah, some kind of tropical rain forest or something, but not one I'm familiar with at all. It happened so fast; where are we?"

She didn't pay any attention as the thought of what this humidity would do to her overwhelmed her.

"Have you any idea what humidity does to my hair?"

"Hmm?"

"It goes like all… poodily, not a pretty sight."

Palmon must have not been too worried about her hair, though, as she suggested they go and look for the others. At mentioning the others, she perked up a little bit. It would be so nice once she had reunited with her friends. Besides, maybe there might be some air conditioning somewhere in this world!

She and Palmon then continued to walk through this strange forest trying to find some hint of clue as to where their friends were. They didn't have any luck. Sweat seemed to be rolling down her back because of the heat, but Palmon didn't seem to mind at all. The flower digimon acted as if she were in seventh heaven or something. But, her digimon was a flower after all. Or, at least some sort of flower monster.

She looked up from the grass she was staring at and felt a smile sneak across her face. Her stomach growled loudly just in case her eyes hadn't seen what her stomach saw hanging.

"Yum! Bananas!"

"Banana?"

If only she could reach them…

She quickly looked to her partner and pointed up at the delicious-looking cluster of fruit. "Can you reach high enough?"

"Mhmm," her partner replied while loosing some poison ivy that wrapped around the batch of bananas and pulled them down into her hands. She quickly grabbed one, not waiting to indulge herself in the delicious fruit.

Well, truth-be-told, she wasn't a huge fan of bananas… but anything would taste good being as hungry as she was right now.

"Mmm, I was really starved. But now I can pretend that we're having banana splits, right Palmon?"

She didn't realize that her partner probably had no idea what a banana split was, but she didn't care. She was already unpeeling the skin of the fruit with her eyes closed. When the fruit was almost uncovered, she opened her eyes again and pulled back the last bit of peel. Her eyes widened when she saw there was no fruit.

"Hey, what's the big idea?"

Palmon, oblivious to what Mimi was worried about, said, "They certainly look delicious."

She watched her partner, about to tell her that these bananas were banana-less, but Palmon had already bit into one of the whatever type of thing this was.

"I can't believe it! This place is seriously getting on my nerves."

She knelt to the ground, pouting. What was she going to do? She had to find some food eventually, or else she was going to starve. Even more important, she needed to find her friends and make sure they were alright. There was something about this place that screamed that humans didn't belong here. And to her it seemed like only a matter of time before one of them got hurt, fell ill, or something. Her stomach growled again, causing her to scowl even deeper. But then something caught her attention.

She looked to her side and saw a pile of…

"Hmmm. Is that hair mousse?" she asked innocently. In truth, she knew what this thing looked like, but she was hoping it wasn't. Then she caught a whiff of the pile of…

"Yuck!"

She heard someone laughing above her and looked up into the trees.

"Uh huh, goodbye! Meet to nice ya!"

"He means hello, nice to meet ya!"

"Uhhhhh, yeah! What he said!"

"He means I'm right!"

Fear started building up from inside her. In all her experience here with digimon, ninety-nine percent of the time they tried attacking her. She was not in the mood to be attacked by these two weird looking things.

"Palmon? Who's the talking dessert?"

She was, of course, referring to the yellow pile of sludge and the little pink rat hanging onto the sludge's shoulder.

"It's Sukamon and Chuumon! Also known as the digi-losers."

"Heeeeyyy, thaanksss," Sukamon said, as if he wasn't really thankful but mad instead.

"Sukamon and his mouse buddy are always together because they share the same teeny, tiny brain!"

That last comment by Palmon must have set the two digimon off because they began hurling more of that digi-sludge at them. She let out a yelp and started running in the opposite direction.

Immediately her feet started aching more than what they had been and the humidity seemed to intensify, making her feel like she was running through a sheet of mist. That dumb piece of digi-sludge's laughter was the only thing she heard as she kept on running. It didn't take long before she couldn't stand it anymore.

"Alright! That's enough. Leave us alone!" she tried, as intimidatingly as possible.

This only seemed to amuse the digimon even more.

"You're ok, but first you have to pay a what do you call it?"

"Pay a toll!" Chuumon finished for the doofus digimon.

"What do you mean a toll?" Palmon asked.

"She thinks she can use our woods for free? She's got to pay!"

She was not in the mood for this right now. Her stress level already was at a high because her friends were missing and she couldn't get that scary, creepy demon guy out of her mind and she thought that he was coming after them. She didn't need to be bullied around by some digi-losers.

"NOOOO!"

"Huh?"

"What part of 'NO' don't you understand, you whackazoids? Now get out of here!"

Chuumon made a whispering motion to his friend but he wasn't that quiet.

"I think she insulted us…"

"BINGO, Einstein!"

"She… did…?" Sukamon thought deeply, but then the digimon glared at her and let out more laughter.

"Let her have it!" Chuumon encouraged.

It was at that time she decided to look up only to see the digimon hurling tens of hundreds of digi-sludge right at her. They were about to hit her when she screamed again and turned to sprint.

Legs ached, thoughts raced, the dumbos laughter kept getting louder. She leaned over a tree and stopped moving.

"That's it. I want to meet with a camp therapist."

She heard something slide down the tree, but she didn't even look to see who it was. Here she was, near tears, all because some bully digi-losers wanted her to pay a toll. No, that wasn't the reason she was so tense. She had come to summer camp hoping to have a great time with her girl friends this summer. It had been something they had planned out like two or three months ago while they were still in school. To be honest, it was her idea in the first place. Atari, Kimoko, and Jusso had been very skeptical because none of them were fans of hanging out anywhere besides a mall or one of the other's houses, but they eventually agreed and it became something they all were really looking forward to.

Now she regretted ever coming up with that plan.

A bright yellow light threw her off the thought train she was on, causing her to look behind her. The sludge creature had one of his yellow arms on her purse, well, digivice to be more exact, and she moved to pull herself away, but she was held in place by the digimon's grip. The golden light was shining from her digivice covering Sukamon and Chuumon, and then, just as fast as it started, it was all over.

Sukamon slid down the rest of the tree and hit the ground bouncing up and down with a big smile on his face.

"I feel all tingly and refreshed like a whole new person!" Sukamon explained.

"Yeah, we're a whole new person!"

Not convinced, she asked snidely, "Is this one as much of a pain as the last one?"

Sukamon smiled even wider, if that was possible, and tilted left and right in sheer excitement.

"Nooooo! Really, we'll be nice from now on! Really!"

She barely noticed Palmon come up to her side as she continued, "So, you'll leave us alone?"

Palmon had a better idea in mind. "Wait, first tell us if you've seen any other humans around here?"

"Any.. whaaa?"

"Creatures that look like this one." Palmon explained, pointing towards her.

"Uhhhhhh…" Sukamon let out with a hand on his head, clearly thinking really hard. Luckily Chuumon was a little quicker.

"Well, as a matter of fact…"

"Oh yeah! I forgot!"

'Ooo, maybe these guys did know something after all,' she thought to herself.

"Tell me!"

If it was possible, the sludge creature seemed to blush.

"Duuuhhhhhh… well it wasn't nearly as pretty as you are of course, but we saw something fall into the old ruins with a Tentomon!"

She couldn't help but smile.

"So when were you planning on telling us? Next week? They must have seen Izzy too Palmon!"

"Listen you two," Palmon said, "Can you take us there? It's important that we find him."

"Sure," Sukamon chimed, "okeydokey!"

"No funny business," Palmon added seriously.

"Cross our heart…"

"… and hope to die!"

"Well of all the absolutely ridiculous things to say!"

Sukamon bounced away then as she and Palmon followed. As they followed between this tree and that, she returned back into her thoughts.

What had her digivice done that caused such a sudden change in these two digimon? She knew the digivices were stronger than they looked because they were able to destroy those black gears, but there was no black gear affecting these two digimon. So what happened?

Her brain started to hurt. These types of questions were more meant for Izzy than her. It's not that she was stupid, she just wasn't as smart as the little, red-headed genius. She frowned as she thought about Izzy, wondering what kind of digimon they had run into, because it almost seemed certain that they would. She then thought about Sora. The only other girl of the group was the one she leaned on the most. Sora was like her rock. Whenever she was having a rough night and couldn't sleep, Sora was always there to listen to her rant. And then there were Tai and Matt. The two fearless leaders of their little group they had were so courageous. If they were with him, she wouldn't be nearly as scared as she was right now. And then there was Joe. She was certain that he was freaking out even more than she was, but at least Gomamon had learned how to digivolve. That meant that Joe would have some protection if he ran into an evil digimon. She couldn't say that about the last of the group, TK. The poor little boy that always managed to make her smile had to be scared out of his mind. Maybe he had landed next to one of the others, maybe Matt. That poor boy needed looking out for more than any of the rest because he was the only one who had a partner that didn't digivolve yet. She silently worried for all of her friends.

Eventually they broke free of the trees and were heading towards a cliff. She then was able to take herself out of her worry and have a determined attitude. She was going to find one of her friends, Izzy, pretty soon, and together they would find the rest of them and find a way to get out of this place and go back home.

She heard water rushing below the upcoming cliff as Sukamon said, "Right… over… there!"

When she saw what Sukamon was pointing to, she gasped.

"Oh, well that's great!" she said sarcastically, "Just great. How are we supposed to get over there?"

"You're the one with the big hat, you think of something! A gorgeous girl like you must have a big brain!"

Even more sarcastically she replied, "Thank a lot… really."

"Before you go, maybe you can give us a big thank you kiss, huh?"

Sukamon and Chuumon then made a kissing sound and reached out for her. She winced as if the two digimon had actually hurt her. Technically, they kinda did because just the thought of kissing them hurt her.

"Ew, please tell me they're kidding!"

"Climb aboard! This way! Quickly!" Palmon said quickly, clearly not wanting anything to do with a kiss either.

She put her arms around her partner as her vines reached out across to the other island.

Faintly she heard Sukamon mutter, "Uhh, maybe we jumped the gun."

It wasn't until her feet hit the ground with a soft thud that she let out a sigh of relief.

"Bleh, just the thought of that kiss is making me queasy."

"Hey!" Sukamon shouted from across the water, "It's ok, we'll wait till you get back!"

"Don't hold your breath!" she replied, pulling down her eyelid and sticking her tongue out. After that, she couldn't help but smile. Yeah, things might not seem to look so up, but they were about to find Izzy and then maybe, just maybe, things could start going back to normal. She could only hope that everyone would be safe in the meantime.

Ugh, why do people, girls especially, have to be so irrational. If only Mimi could be more patient, she would have realized that he caught on to something important. Everyone always thought he was just plucking away purposelessly on his laptop "playing games" as Palmon had said to him earlier, but that was rarely the case. He was trying to figure this strange world out. It was just like the time he had stumbled across those strange hieroglyphs at Factorial Town. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have found out that data was a living, viable source in this world. He never stopped to think about things without having a good reason for doing so.

And now she had gotten herself stuck in that maze. He was almost half tempted to let her stay in the mess she got herself in, but his partner, Tentomon, was in with her. That and he wasn't that cruel. Despite his social awkwardness, he did care for his friends. Besides, these were some of the first friends he's ever had in his life.

He was small; there was no hiding that. Many people thought he was much younger than what he actually was, so other students tended not to talk to him because no one wanted to be friends with the shrimp. He also enjoyed school, learning, computers. He was not a sports guy in the slightest, and so he easily adopted the label of 'nerd.' People don't hang out with nerds. Especially those that are as strange as he was.

He didn't even have parents. Well, no, that was illogical. He did have parents, but the ones he called mom and dad were not his real mom and dad. He still remembered that night he overheard his "parents" talking to each other.

* * *

_"__Don't you think it's time we told Izzy the truth, dear?"_

_In the background, a Japanese game show was on television, entertaining the two adults sitting at the couch across from it. Neither were paying attention to the screen or the noise… or the little red-head peeking in from his room, listening in on the conversation._

_"__No," the male answered to the female, "I'm afraid if we told him now it would be too big of a shock."_

_They were oblivious to the shock the child that was topic of the conversation was in right now._

_"__I know we're trying to do what's best, but I worry that once he finds out he'll be upset that we didn't tell him sooner."_

_By now, the boy was in tears, eyes quivering._

_"__Well, we just can't think about that now."_

* * *

Needless to say, he hadn't slept that night. When he had first found out, he wanted to think that it was all a nightmare and wasn't real. He tried not to let it affect him, but it still haunted him to this day. It was hard feeling like you didn't belong to begin with, but then hearing that you are adopted and don't technically belong to who you thought your mom and dad were… that was rough.

He didn't really talk to other people since he found out he was adopted. That actually was when he became a computer whiz and spent most of his time on a laptop or some other device. Computers took the place of other people; instead of spending time with people, he spent his time with his computers. Technology and learning couldn't hurt him, but people could. That was one thing he learned.

But this was different. He now was in a new world he never even thought existed, and he was taken here with six other kids, all with their own digimon partner. He normally never would have talked to these kids if it weren't for the cross-dimensional travel and the life-threatening situations they've been in so far. Those kinds of things had a way of making people become friends.

He even discovered that he cared for these people, mostly his digimon partner Tentomon. He enjoyed being around the others. They made him laugh, they listened to him, they cared about him, they didn't make fun of him. And Tentomon. Tentomon had saved his life countless number of times already. The red beetle digimon was humorous and fun to be around, and the digimon tried his best to make sure nothing bad ever happened to him. Tentomon, whether he realized it or not, was teaching him a lot about social interaction and about himself as well. He was constantly learning from Tentomon, and he loved that about the digimon.

But now Tentomon and Mimi were stuck in the labyrinth that was these ruins. He had to find them; no, he would find them. He was going to lead them out of here, bring them to safety, and then go and find the others.

"There they are!"

A blinking red light started showing up on the map of the maze on his computer.

"That's Mimi? That blinking light?"

"Precisely."

He moved the blue arrow on the screen to the red dot and clicked.

"No no, not that way," he heard Tentomon say.

"Oh buzz off. Leave me alone," another voice said.

"That's my girl," Palmon said.

"I honed in on a signal from her digivice," he explained, "We can hear her, let's see if she can hear us."

He took out a headset with a microphone and hooked it up to his computer.

"Izzy to Mimi, do you read me? Repeat, do you read me?"

"Izzy, is that you?"

"Alright! It's working!" Now it should be smooth sailing; all he had to do was lead Mimi through the maze towards the exit.

"Ok Mimi, I'm going to navigate for you so walk exactly where I tell you to."

"Uhh,"

"Don't worry," Palmon joined in, "You'll be ok. He knows what he's doing."

He rolled his eyes; of course he knew what he was doing.

"Is that you Palmon?"

"Just do what Izzy tells you and you'll be outta there before you know it."

"See, I told you Izzy was a good boy!"

He smiled at his partner's words before going back to giving instructions.

"Ok, now take the first doorway on the right. When you get to the end, turn left, but be careful in the next room because there's a big hole in the middle of the floor."

He heard Mimi scream and he feared for a second that she hadn't been careful enough, but he could still hear her after the sound of the rocks crumbling faded.

"There should be a narrow ledge you can use to get across."

"Izzy, did we have to take the scenic route?"

They had made it across and were making good time when another dot appeared on his screen, this one yellow. Worry started to build up inside him.

"Uh oh."

"What do you mean uh oh?" Palmon inquired.

"Ok, I'm ready, which way should we go?"

"Something has happened…"

He ignored the three of them and continued muttering to himself.

"I was hoping he was just a glitch, but there's definitely something in that maze with them and it's moving closer."

"Now I am starting to worry," Palmon said, voicing his thoughts precisely.

"Izzy, what's with the silent treatment?"

He watched the screen and listened on as a new voice sounded out, laughing. Why did evil things always have to laugh?

"Did you hear that? It sounded evil."

"Tentomon, it's been such a long time!"

"Oh nooooo!" he heard his partner scream in his usual 'Oh nooooo' voice.

"Centarumon, half man half horse; you really don't want to get on either of his bad sides!"

Izzy could tell the severity of the situation through the screams and the shouts of 'run' from Tentomon, so he braced himself to do his job. He had to lead them out of there as quickly as possible… but the exit was so far away. What was he going to do? Then he got an idea.

"Quick, take a left!"

"Izzy, we are quite anxiously awaiting your directions, are you there?"

"Another left," he replied, "Through the doorway."

He then took off his headset and ran out of the ruins, Palmon following him. He quickly told her his plan as they ran out of the ruins and towards where he guessed they were standing at a dead end from inside the ruins. Confirming his hypothesis, a burst of energy shot through the wall and he and Palmon hurried over.

He and Palmon then started throwing as many of the rocks that had crumbled away from where Centarumon blasted the wall towards the ruins. The ruins were starting to shake violently, but it didn't seem like they were making any progress. Was his plan failing? No, he couldn't stop trying; he wasn't going to give up on his friends, not after all they've been through so far.

As if an answer to prayer, the wall crumbled away, revealing a frightened Mimi and Tentomon with what appeared to be a centaur standing behind.

"Get out of there, hurry! Come on!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!"

Mimi started running out of the ruins when Centarumon readied himself for another attack.

"Watch out Mimi!"

White digivolution light enveloped Palmon as the digimon started digivolving. He watched, fascinated at the event. But this time he wasn't thinking about the numbers, calculations, or processes that could be a part of digivolution; he was marveling over how he had made it just in time and now their digimon were changing forms to protect them from this enemy digimon. Relief went through his body as he heard the familiar chant of, "Palmon digivolve to…. Togemon!"

"Leave my friends alone!" Togemon warned Centarumon.

"Mimi get out of there!" he encouraged.

"Leave this to me!" Tentomon stated as he too was enveloped in the white light.

"Tentomon digivolve to…. Kabuterimon."

Unfortunately, they had miscalculated the size change of their partners in the small ruins. Mimi was pushed against the wall by Kabuterimon's large body, and he had somehow managed not to get stabbed by Togemon's needles that were too close for comfort.

He heard Mimi utter something, but then Centarumon let out his readies blow, shooting them out of the cave. He landed with a hard thud on the dirt ground and sat up immediately.

"Well, that's one way to get out of there," Mimi said.

He relaxed, knowing that she was safe.

"But there's no time for us to start taking it easy."

Centarumon confirmed his worry as he stepped out of the ruins.

"Look who's here."

"Yeah… I see him."

"Leave them alone!" Kabuterimon announced, standing up on his feet.

Centarumon was about to send off another blast when Kabuterimon flew up and launched his own Electro Shocker. Togemon was up as well.

"I think it's time for a Needle Spray!"

Centarumon had loosed his attack, but his and Mimi's two champion's attacks cancelled it out and continued on to strike Centarumon, causing him to cry out in pain.

Just then, a black gear appeared from behind the centar and broke into pieces.

Centarumon landed on his knees, and then on his face.

"That felt… interesting."

"One of those black gears fell out of him," he noted.

"Ugh," Centarumon groaned, "Where am I?"

"Are you a good digimon now?"

"Hmm? What? That device on your bag!"

They both looked as Mimi picked her bag up in her arms and handled her digivice.

"This?"

"Yes, I've seen it before."

Centarumon then proceeded to show them back into the ruins where a picture of their digivices was on a wall. He then explained how the ruins are the digivice's temple and he was actually the protector of the ruins. The digivices also were apparently the last line of defense against the 'darkness.' It was while Centarumon was explaining about the digivices that Leomon showed up, black gear and all. He muttered something about destroying them, so, naturally, Leomon tried to destroy them. Centarumon had tried to protect them and at first succeeded, but then failed. Just as Leomon was about to attack him and Mimi, she held up her digivice and a golden light emanated from it. When he saw what was happening, he understood Centarumon's words, 'preserver of light against the darkness.' They then proceeded to fend off Leomon, causing him to flee in pain from their digivices.

Now they were back to where he had spent countless hours trying to figure out the glyphs on the walls, where that ominous black gear was still spinning. He, Mimi, Centarumon, Palmon, and Tentomon were standing in the room and he had an idea.

"Centarumon, maybe with your help we can stop this black gear."

"No," Centarumon answered, "I'm afraid I have neither the strength nor the knowledge to oppose Devimon and the powers of darkness."

"Are you still going on about that? When can we start looking for something to eat?"

Drat, if Centarumon couldn't help, then it was up to him to figure out just how to stop this black gear. He turned back to his laptop and sat next to the wall.

"I guess I'll just have to deciphering and analyzing these two sets of hieroglyphs. I'm sure all the answers are in here somewhere."

As he started typing away, he heard Mimi instantly rebel.

"Excuse me? Isn't this where I came in? You're not seriously starting all that again. Not right now."

"Just a nano," he said shortly.

He heard Mimi's voice fade away. "This black gear. Who cares about that old thing? All I care about is some luck."

He heard a faint thud and turned to see what the noise was. Mimi had apparently kicked the black gear in fury and he didn't think anything of it at first, but then the black gear slowed down, stopped, and then started rotating again, but this time in the opposite direction.

They quickly ran out of the ruins and to the cliff that dropped off to the ocean. Not too far away, another island was sitting, moving quickly in the opposite direction they were. It took him a second before he realized it was actually them that were moving in the opposite direction!

"Look! The process has reversed itself!"

"Amazing!"

"Excellent work Mimi," he said, surprisingly honestly, "It just goes to show you that sometimes the simplest solution is actually the best!"

Then some other digimon from the other island started shouting at Mimi about a kiss or something like that. He listened amusedly as the girl and partner digimon next to him stuck their tongue out at the other digimon. Apparently there was a funny story behind that, but now wasn't the time to talk about that. They were heading towards that mountain, Infinity Mountain to be precise. He now knew much more information than he did before, but that only seemed to bring up more questions. Somehow, he wasn't upset at that at all. They were conspiring against that evil creep, Devimon, and they were now starting to make some progress. If they kept this up, they were going to be able to find the others, get back together, and defeat that Devimon once and for all. He looked at the girl next to him and smiled genuinely before turning to face Infinity Mountain, a big smile still across his face.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

I always thought that TK was my favorite character in the digimon series, and he still is by far, but I now have a new appreciation for the other digidestineds. They all are so unique in their own ways, and they make the series really interesting to watch. Plus, all the funny comments them and their digimon make really crack me up, and it has been a blast re-watching some of these episodes that I haven't seen since childhood. Makes me wish they would've done more seasons with the original digidestineds...

This is now the second to last chapter where they will be identical to the canon. So, after next chapter, things are going to start to heat up and get really interesting! Hope I still have some readers out there sticking through to the good stuff, and I hope you all will take the time to review! Also, I want to get this story and Hope's Sacrifice done before summer, but I doubt that will happen... but still, I'm going to try to update as much as possible. So if you find me updating more frequently than what I have been, then that is the case. Anyways, enjoy this chapter! Constructive criticism welcome :)

* * *

Chapter Six:

"Sora is fishing! Sora is fishing!"

She loved her partner, don't get her wrong, but sometimes digimon could just be really annoying. Like, how could one possibly be happy at a time like this?

Hadn't it been only a couple of hours ago that they had woken up and found that the mansion they were sleeping in was actually an illusion created by this creep of a digimon, Devimon. Did they not all get separated from their friends and now were all alone on a deserted island? Yes, that all had happened, but you wouldn't be able to tell by the pink bird's gleeful voice.

She sighed inwardly. It was no use snapping at her partner. She had to keep her cool.

"Catch anything?"

"Not yet, give me time; I'm hoping to catch something big."

"I'd even be happy if you caught me a little sardine."

"Please, I know how hungry you can get. If I caught a huge any-kind-of-fish you'd be right there eating it with me," then she doubted herself as an image of her partner eating this huge fish all in one bite leaving her with nothing to eat. Her stomach growled in protest. "Right?"

"Welll… since you put it that way. Do you really think you can make a big catch?"

'No,' was what her first thought was, but then she lightened up a bit and realized that they were bound to catch something. Besides, where would they be without a little hope?

"Oh look! Maybe there's one now!"

She looked at the stick she was using as a bite indicator disappear under the water, indicating that something was on her hook. She couldn't believe their luck.

When she started pulling the fishing rod, she almost lost balance due to the force the fish was pulling down on her hook, almost causing her to fly forward into the water.

"Oh boy! It feels like a whale! This is a whopper for sure!"

She then forced her whole body weight backwards, fighting the fish with all her might. It wasn't enough sitting down, so she made her way to her feet.

"Pull harder!" Biyomon encouraged, or maybe it was Biyomon's stomach.

"I'm trying to!"

She continued pulling with all her might and was really starting to wish she had gone to a weight room when she was back at home. She was in soccer, but that didn't really help much with her arm strength.

"Let me help!"

Biyomon put her wings around her waist and started pulling backwards, trying to help her.

"Blurghg. Help!"

She looked out into the water only to see that the fish had surfaced. Well, she expected to see a fish, but really it was nothing even close to a fish.

"Oh my! That's a person, Joe!"

With renewed force, they pulled even harder to help bring Joe to shore. Then Gomamon appeared, with his paw over Joe, helping them out as he tried to swim to shore. Eventually they made it and she and Biyomon helped Gomamon and Joe get to land. She immediately started to shiver as her arms and legs were soaked in the cold, ocean water. For a second she worried about Joe's health, but decided that worrying wasn't going to do anything to help Joe.

"Quick, Biyo, go get some leaves for Joe to lay on and some logs to start a fire.

While Biyomon flew away and started gathering the mentioned items, she pulled Joe up the cliff over to where she had just been fishing. Somehow Joe's glasses hadn't gotten lost deep into the ocean, so she took them and set them off to the ground. She then examined her friend to see if there were any signs of injury or such.

She was definitely not a doctor, but she had had her fair share of soccer injuries to deal with, so she at least knew where to start. Joe didn't have any signs of bruising, battering, or bleeding anywhere on his body though. Besides the occasional shiver, Joe was completely knocked out and she wouldn't have been able to guess he was alive if it weren't for his shallow breathing, which was starting to increase back to a regulatory cycle the more time he was out of the water. Gomamon stayed silent the entire time they waited for Biyomon to return, which wasn't terribly long, but any time the seal digimon was silent was very rare and she knew something had gone wrong, if Joe's unconscious body wasn't enough to tell her that.

After a few more moments of silence, Biyomon finally returned and laid the items on the ground. She laid the leaves out into a makeshift bed, while her partner arranged the wood into a pile and sent a Spiral Twister at it to ignite the fire.

Finally, Joe was all situated on his leaf bed, and she, Biyomon, and Gomamon were sitting by the fire warming up as Gomamon told them what exactly had happened.

"Then a large crate drifted over to us, Ogremon popped out and attacked us!"

"Oh goodness, how horrible."

"It was, but, I digivolved and we escaped him, but then my strength left me. I just couldn't seem to keep my energy up. The next thing I knew I was sinking deeper and deeper. And when I opened my eyes and looked around I finally spotted Joe nearby. He was unconscious at the time and sinking fast. I tried to get him to the surface but my strength was giving out again and I knew I couldn't hold my breath for much longer. And that's about the time your fishing line hit me. So I grabbed that line and wrapped it around and hung on until you pulled us in."

Her insides were churning inside of her as she started to feel sympathetic for Gomamon. The little guy seemed to be really worried and still shaken up from everything that had been going on. His usual cheery disposition was long gone, and a serious, stern look was on his face.

"Oh my goodness. I'm so glad that the both of you are ok!"

"But I'm worried about Joe."

She had to say, these digimon really impressed her every day. When she and the others landed in the Digital World, it was clear to them that their digimon partners already cared deeply for them, and this care had not subsided in the slightest as time went on. In fact, it even seemed to grow more. Even Gomamon, the class clown of the partner digimon, was all worked up and worried about his partner.

She almost envied the digital monsters. Not that she wanted to fight evil digimon all the time or become some huge firebird like Biyomon did, but she wanted a heart that was as big as a digimon's. She wanted to care for others as much as their digimon cared about them. She wanted to be the one who looked out for the rest of her friends and did whatever she could to keep them safe. But look at how everything was going now. Tai, Matt, Izzy, Mimi, and TK were missing. The last time she had seen Tai, the evil Devimon was about to attack with Ogremon and Leomon. And Joe was unconscious right now and had almost drowned. And what had she been doing? She had simply been fishing, waiting to feed her empty stomach.

Feelings of guilt and sorrow tempted to overwhelm her, but she saw the worried look on Gomamon's eyes and knew that if she really wanted to start being a loving person, helping Gomamon and Joe would make a great start.

"You are?" Biyomon asked, seemingly just as surprised as she was by the prankster's worry.

"Joe's going to be just fine, Gomamon" she tried to reassure the digimon.

Gomamon's worried expression only seemed to deepen.

"Well, yes, physically, but I'm worried about his confidence. Fighting Ogremon back there really knocked him out. He needs to rebuild his self-confidence."

"How can we help him?" Biyo asked.

"Very simple, we just make him our leader."

She almost wanted to face-palm. Joe, be a leader? What kind of stunt was Gomamon trying to pull? Joe sure would lead them, lead them right off this cliff! 'No,' she thought to herself, 'You have to be loving Sora.'

This thought was what prompted her next move.

"Huh? Oh, ooo…"

There was a pause as Joe sat up and reached over to put on his glasses.

"Hey, where's Ogremon? Huh, huh, huh?"

"He's gone," Biyomon chirped.

She stood up. This better work.

"But we've got a bigger problem. We can't find the others. What should we do? We're stuck on this deserted island with no leader. So I guess you're going to have to lead us Joe."

Joe frantically got to his feet with an astounded look etched across his face. "Whaaaat?"

"I'm for him!"

"And me!"

Joe started shaking his head and put his hands up in an innocent manner. "Not me, I'm not a leader."

"You have to," she told him, "You're the strongest one here!"

The two digimon in front of her nodded with muttered 'Mhmm's.

"Not to mention the bravest!" Biyomon added.

Joe sighed, but Gomamon spoke up, "Come on Joe! Remember how you fought the Unimon?"

He then had a determined look on his face. "I am brave!"

Joe got back up to his feet and continued his speech. "You're right; I am the bravest one here."

She couldn't help but mutter, "Well, let's not get too carried away."

"Oh. But if I fail, who will save you or me?"

She shrugged. "My fishline?"

Ding. Dong. Ding.

She looked over to where she heard what she thought was some sort of bell. But just as suddenly as she heard it, the noise was gone. The fog in front of her cleared, however, revealing yet another cliff higher up with what appeared to be a church sitting on top. How she hadn't found that church earlier she had no idea, not that she would've gone exploring. It may have been night out, which only added to the effect, but that church looked really creepy.

"Did you hear anything?"

"Yeah, it seemed to come from up there."

"What do you suppose it is?"

"Looks kind of like a church."

"Wherever there's a church, there's usually people. Maybe our friends?"

"Someone should check it out."

"I'll go!" Biyomon exclaimed happily, already starting to fly away.

With all her attention focused on the church, she had almost forgot about helping Joe out with his confidence.

"Wait Biyomon. Joe's our leader now!"

"Whaaa…?"

"Well? Lead us!" she said, maybe a bit too harshly, but she had to prompt him to get a move on. She knew Joe was always a bit of a scaredey cat when it came to creepy buildings and such, so she only wanted to try to push him a little.

He almost looked like he was going to have a heart attack. "What if we see a bad digimon? I… uh… I need a moment!... Ok!"

Finally Joe started walking and she made sure she let him go first before she followed. She had to admit, this was actually kind of fun. She never knew Joe until they found out they were rooming together for the summer camp, but now she knew quite a bit about him. Joe wanted to be a doctor just like his brothers and father. He also was the oldest one of the group and tended to be a worrywart. She never really thought much of Joe, especially when he got involved in Tai and Matt's fight about climbing up Infinity Mountain. But then Joe surprised her and everyone else when he tried to take on Infinity Mountain with only Gomamon by his side. He even had been the one who jumped off the mountain onto Unimon's back, which caused Gomamon to digivolve for the first time and help destroy the black gear lodged onto Unimon's back. Ever since then, Joe seemed different. It was as if Joe was sure of who he was. He knew how he fit into the group, and he knew just how he could help all of them. His worries even seemed to be replaced by boldness, which was noticeable when Joe charged towards the mansion fearlessly. Which actually ended up being a trap, but still. Now, however, Joe seemed to return to his old self. He was shaking in his boots, almost literally if he would have been wearing boots, and was very unsure of what to do. Gomamon's idea seemed to be a good one, because Joe was being forced to make decisions and try to be the leader. He had to try to control his fears and be bold again. She was really hoping this experience would help bring back the new Joe she had grown to revere. It was the Joe she missed.

"Hut two three four o'er to your left two three four o'er left two three four your left two three four…"

"Must he keep up that army march dribble?"

"Halt!"

Finally they had made it to the top of the hill; she didn't know if she could handle much more of that ridiculous chant.

"Notice anything?"

She looked around the place. Actually, this place shocked her.

"It all looks sort of familiar to me, as if it's a place I've dreamed about or déjà vu. You know, like you've been here before?"

"You're right. This definitely looks like a part of the island that broke away."

"Yeah!"

"Yep. So we should find everyone else or at least some other people taking shelter in that church!"

Was he even listening to what he was saying? 'No, be nice Sora. Loving, remember?'

"You're assuming quite a bit there…"

"Fine! It's my opinion!"

"I'm just giving you another view."

"I'm the leader here!"

"Ok… excuse me."

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. She snuck a glare at Gomamon who shrugged at her with a smile on his face.

"Now, let's move out!"

With that, Joe marched his way off towards the church. She, Gomamon, and Biyomon stayed back watching him.

"Wow, looks like we've created a monster."

"Hey, think a black gear got him?"

She couldn't help but laugh, "Gomamon…"

They finally caught up to Joe and were walking behind him, but Joe must not have even noticed that they had stayed back a little bit.

"Ok, step lively troops. Let's have no stragglers. Here's the church."

"Who's going in?"

"What are you waiting for?"

"Huhhhh…"

"What's wrong?"

"Well boss?"

Ok, the fun was starting to kick back in a little bit.

"Joe, you're the leader. Do you want me to take a peak?"

"No! I don't want you taking a peak. I can't wait to go in there!"

Joe then walked off to go into the church. Again they stayed back and laughed.

"I think it worked!"

They watched as Joe sneaked very un-stealthily against the wall of the church. He peeked over for a long moment, and then came running back so fast that when he tried to stop he lost his footing and fell to the ground. Joe quickly recovered.

"There are people in the church! Dancing, badly I might add."

At first she thought Joe had lost it, but he led them back to the wall. She finally peered around the corner and couldn't believe her eyes.

"There are people, dancing, and they're wearing masks, like it's Halloween!"

"Hallo… what?"

This new voice was too close for comfort and hearing that it did not belong to her, Joe, or their partners, she and the rest of them jumped several inches off the ground in fear. Plus, she may or may not have screamed as well.

The man who had snuck up on them seemed to be one of the other people who was dancing who had just broken away from the circle. He had a creepy mask on like everyone else, and his voice was unlike any she had heard come from a human.

Before they could ask him anything, the man was showing them inside the church.

The sound of an organ bellowed out of the opened doors, sending chills down her back.

"They're celebrating the Bakemon holiday," the man suddenly spoke up.

"It reminds me of Halloween," Joe said, a little too happily. At the mention of the name 'Bakemon,' the two digimon seemed to tense up, but otherwise didn't react.

The man then walked down the aisle surrounded by pews on both sides. "We'd love to have you join us. We don't have a lot of young people around, and no holiday is complete without them. You arrived just in time for some… fun."

"Like trick or treat? You do that for Bakemon?"

"Yes!"

"Wait, Bakemon as in Lord Bakemon?" Gomamon asked, finally speaking up.

"Yes…"

"But the only Bakemon I know of is a horrible digimon who lives among ghosts as their ruler. Why would you honor and celebrate someone like that? In the words of our friends he's like a 'loser.'"

"You got that right!"

The man suddenly grew in anger as he got within mere inches of their digimon's faces.

"Don't you dare come in here and tell us who to honor or not!"

"Now, now."

"Back off!"

"You're a little touch," she uttered, "We just want to know when the trick-or-treating starts." As she spoke the words, though, she realized that she probably wasn't going to be getting any candy that night.

"You're not afraid?" the man asked, curiosity in his voice.

"Nuh uh!"

"Well, you should be, because it's a trick…"

At this, the man's mask started to crack and broke into hundreds of pieces. The man's figure then vanished and was replaced by a sickly-white ghost creature with huge fangs and dark, clawed arms.

"And you're the treat!"

She and Joe screamed in panic as Gomamon explained, "The masked man was the digimon Lord Bakemon in disguise. No one has ever seen him in his true form!"

When Biyomon and Gomamon also screamed in panic, that's when she knew for sure that they were in trouble.

Then all the people that were standing near the altar of the church turned around and changed into Bakemon as well. They turned around and ran for the door, but they were met by another group of people surrounding them. The dances turned to Bakemon as well.

"The dancers are ghosts too!"

The Bakemon then started to advance on them.

"Spiral Twister!"

A green fire shot from Biyomon at the Bakemon causing them to separate. Gomamon charged forward about to digivolve, but then collapsed on the ground.

"Gomamon!"

"I need more food, you were right, I should've saved some for later!"

Biyomon then tried to digivolve as well, but failed.

"Oh Biyomon!"

"I'm hungry too, can't digivolve!"

The next thing she knew they all were surrounded by a herd of nearing Bakemon. They tried to escape, but to no avail. They were trapped.

* * *

"Trick or treat! You're the treat!"

He looked to his right only to see all the Bakemon had gathered together and were situated in a semi-circle around them. To say he was a bit worried would be an understatement. He also couldn't help but feel guilty. He was the leader. He was the one in charge. And he had led them into a trap and were about to be eaten. It really boosted his confidence.

"Ok, don't panic. I'm still in control and feeling strong."

"Ok."

He then couldn't control himself as he whined, "I don't want to be somebody's appetizer! I'm supposed to go to med-school!"

Just then two Bakemon were flying overhead holding two containers.

"Salt."

"And pepper."

"More."

"Why not?"

Of course, the pepper had landed right on his face causing him to sneeze.

"Salt and pepper? You're not really going to eat us, are you?"

Trepidation was evident in Sora's voice, and the Bakemon's response wasn't reassuring in the slightest.

"You're a little on the scrawny side, but you'd be surprised what the right seasonings can do!"

"You think we can finagle them into dining on someone a bit bigger?"

"What kind of fiend is this guy? We're just kids!"

The Bakemon had then resumed their continual chanting. He was hoping some brilliant idea would come to his mind to get them out of there, but he was having no eureka moment at the time.

"You don't want to eat me; I'm mostly gristle anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying they should eat me first?"

"Oh can't you see that it's curtained for both of us?"

"Oh go have your pity party somewhere else!"

They were interrupted by the increase in volume of the Bakemon chanting. The words seemed to increase and then started circling around them overtop of them. Then they floated away, constantly chanting unintelligible words all the while. Then, he finally understood what they were saying.

"Now it's time to chew on you!"

The Bakemon then morphed together, revealing one huge, even scarier Bakemon, staring right at the two of them.

This Bakemon wasn't chanting, instead the digimon was growling with claws outstretched, ready to grab the two of them and throw them into his mouth to chew them up. The thought sent shivers down his spine. Yards, meters, now feet separated them from the Bakemon when something sprung up from the ground. He would've turned behind him to see what it was, but he was a bit tied up at the moment.

Then he heard the familiar screech of Birdramon from behind him.

"Your timing couldn't have been any better!"

"Now go get Bakemon…"

With the appearance of the two digimon, Bakemon seemed to float back in fear. Their digimon then took this moment to free them from the ropes binding them. As soon as they were let loose, they ran out of the church, Sora finishing her order with, "… while we get out of here!"

They ran towards the cemetery outside of the church, ducking behind two tombstones. They looked back at the church only to see Birdramon and Ikkakumon in Bakemon's grip.

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

The torpedo was launched from Ikkakumon's horn, but Bakemon simply grabbed the missile and threw it behind him.

Birdramon then tried with a "Meteor Wing!" but Bakemon was not affected by the attack at all. Things weren't looking any better than what they were when they were tied up.

"Woah!"

"He's sure putting up a good fight! Lord Bakemon is tough!"

No. Enough of this. If there was one thing he had learned from being in the Digital World for so long it was that he could never give up. He was the oldest kid here in his group of friends, and because of that everyone depended on him, even if they didn't realize it. He needed to be a rock, the steady one in the group that everyone could lean and rely on. If he faltered, then everyone else did too. Why had they gotten themselves into this mess to begin with? Because he had fearfully wandered into the Bakemons' trap, and who had fallen victim because of his foolishness? Sora, Gomamon, and Biyomon. Everyone was in trouble because of him, but he was going to do something about that. He needed to be strong, not just for himself, but for everyone around him.

"No, his power comes from evil, I know that good can beat him with time."

"Oh, what if it's too late?"

He looked over at Sora, as seriously as he could. "It's never too late to fight against evil. We have to weaken Lord Bakemon to help our friends prevail."

"We? You're the leader, not me!"

"Don't be a quitter!"

"So what makes you think that we can beat him?"

"I once saw a show about this Roman physicist. He believed that repeating a phrase helps you focus mind over matter!"

"Let's focus on running!"

"No, we focus on making Bakemon lose his power."

"Ok, you're in charge; start focusing!"

"Bakemon lose your power. Bakemon lose your power. Bakemon lose your power. You can jump in any time now! Well, help!"

"Right, but, I don't know, it's… that… I didn't… oh… yeah! We'll use my lucky hat!"

Sora then started beating a stick on her hat creating a rhythmic beat to his chant. The whole time he chanted, he couldn't stop the fears and doubts creeping in his mind. How in the world was he going to stop a digimon like Lord Bakemon by simply saying 'Bakemon lose your power.' As the doubts crept up, he finally decided that enough was enough. He was sick and tired of doubting himself anymore. He had climbed Mount Infinity, well, half of Mount Infinity, with only Gomamon. He had jumped off a mountain onto Unimon's back, which caused Gomamon to digivolve for the first time. He was brave. He could do things that he even believed he couldn't do. And this time was no different. He had to be strong for Ikkakumon, Birdramon, and Sora. He had to be strong for Tai, Izzy, Matt, Mimi, and TK. He had to succeed. After all, they were the good guys, and the good always wins!

"Joe, Bakemon is getting weaker! I believe it's working!"

He felt a tingling sensation rush inside of him, and he knew that he had succeeded.

"Bakemon better pick his fights more carefully. We won!"

Ikkakumon and Birdramon fired their attacks at Bakemon who watched them draw nearer and nearer as he watched, petrified in fear.

"Take a hit; hit the highway!"

The attacks landed a direct hit and exploded on contact. Bakemon flew into the air and exploded. Hundreds of pieces of the digimon's cloak fell to the ground, and he couldn't help but laugh.

"We gotcha!"

"Way to go guys! You got Bakemon!"

Birdramon and Ikkakumon joined in on the laughter, only for as long as the ground to crack underneath them.

"It's an earthquake!"

"But we're not shaking!"

They then peered into the ground to see where it lead to.

"Uh oh, those are black gears!"

The rotating black gears then stopped suddenly.

"Lots of them, huh?"

"Uh, we're shaking!"

They looked again in the crack only to see that the black gears were destroyed.

"Wow, I'm sure glad those black gears broke!"

"And I'm glad Bakemon's gone!"

They then ran to the edge of the island and looked out over the water where a tall mountain sprouted out from the ground.

"Look, there's Infinity Mountain."

"And that's where we're going."

"Yeah."

Birdramon then grabbed Sora and he jumped onto Ikkakumon's back as he went by water and Sora went by air to Infinity Mountain.

"Maybe our friends are there Sora!"

"I hope so."

And as he stared off towards the ominous mountain, he couldn't help but feel excited for the next fight. Somehow he had managed to save him and Sora from Lord Bakemon, and now they were heading towards Infinity Mountain to find their friends. And they were going to find them; they had to. They had to be reconciled, and he had to continue to grow and learn how to be as reliable as possible.


End file.
